Comedy / Reviews
Review: Romesh Ranganathan: Irrational
Over the course of two hours in the company of Romesh Ranganathan, you’d be forgiven for thinking he plans to style himself in the mould of grumpy-man-of-comedy Jack Dee. Throughout his latest show Irrational he takes aim at a whole range of life’s little annoyances to many nods of agreement from the sold out Colston Hall.
First in Ranganathan’s sights is the seating at Wagamama, Starbucks and the price of popcorn at the cinema. Whilst most of this material finds laughs purely from outrage, it feels a little tired and broad. His anger at the latter is amusing, but the section lacks a big laugh.
He comes into his own when he leaves behind the little annoyances and moves on to tackling the big things. His biggest laughs of the night take in his visit to the UKIP website and then questioning his parents on exactly what they had ‘put in’ to the country. The material is relevant, personal and above all else, funny.
Ranganathan exudes warmth even when berating his family for their idiosyncrasies. His material about his mum calling him a ‘coconut’ (that’s brown on the outside and white on the inside) and the struggles of having a bilingual family take us far beyond the broad knockabout comedy from earlier in the show.
The BBC has recently commissioned a new series of Ranganathan’s Asian Provocateur, which will feature his mum as his travel companion. It seems the BBC, like me, feel his best work is when he delves into family life. As the shows draws to a close, I feel as if I’ve got to know Romesh a little better: and, on tonight’s evidence, that’s a thoroughly good way to spend a couple of hours.
Romesh Ranganathan played Colston Hall on Thursday, September 29 and Friday, September 30. For more Colston Hall comedy lineups, visit www.colstonhall.org/whats-on/comedy
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
