Review by Hilary Wardle

Given the length of time Jeff Mirza has been on the circuit, it’s a mystery why this show is such a mess. Even the title is overlong, as if he couldn’t decide on an angle right from the beginning. He also (fatally) doesn’t seem very confident in his own material: even though it takes a decent helping of bravery to dress as a halal butcher called Paki Bashir and make gags about forced marriages, even if you are Pakistani yourself.

It also probably doesn’t help that he was recently questioned by Edinburgh police for using the word ‘Paki’ on his flyer and effectively accused of inciting racial hatred… against himself. Maybe that shook his self-confidence.

It’s always tricky listening to a single individual speaking for an entire culture, and some of the jokes - though obviously trying to do the opposite - seem to support existing prejudices and stereotypes rather than subverting them. In fact, looking around at the laughing faces it’s sometimes hard not to worry who’s laughing for the right reasons.

Not that I would assume anyone in the audience to be prejudiced. But if they are, they won’t find much to challenge those prejudices in Mirza’s cack-handed and confusing attempts to address how Muslim women are treated, jihadism and sharia law.

He also disappears from the stage at regular intervals to get changed into different costumes. As one of these is a full burka and another an Arab sheik outfit, it tends to take quite a while. These jarring breaks don’t help the already struggling show; in fact they leave it feeling like an amateur mess.

At the end of the day, you’d expect a lot better from someone who’s been endorsed by the Chuckle Brothers. Someone should really notify Paul and Barry.

Review date: 21 Aug 2013
Reviewed by: Hilary Wardle