Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Urooj Ashfaq is one of a raft of Indian comedians London’s Soho Theatre has brought over to the Fringe, helping raise the international profile of acts on the subcontinent’s fast-growing stand-up scene.

It could also be a canny commercial move, as she draws a considerable Asian crowd, suggesting there’s a sizeable untapped market up for grabs. Indeed, Ashfaq even delivers some punchlines in Hindi to make this contingent ‘feel like you’re at home’ – occasionally, but not always, offering the English translation as a postscript.

That’s not the only language hurdle as she tends to gabble key lines, losing the impact. But given she’s only performed a handful of gigs in what is her second language, that can easily be forgiven. 

She may pander, but it works. The expats lap up her show, being on the same wavelength with every reference and attitude, and they take her to their hearts. How many other comedians in cynical Britain could get an applause break just for saying they were in a three-year relationship? Likewise, well-worn lines used just as throwaways get disproportionately large laughs, as if she was the first to say it. 

Her relationship with some of the audience has been forged before she even takes to the stage, for she’s a big deal on Instagram. One group of latecomers even tease her about her cat, unmentioned on stage, that’s how intimately they feel they know her.

But then, there is a lot to love about this winsome 27-year-old. She’s got an infectious smile and plenty of warmth and cheery self-deprecation, portraying herself as something of an idiot who doesn’t quite fit in. She’s strong on crowd work, too, affectionately teasing those she engages with. 

Ashfaq plays up to her supposed haplessness but has a sly tendency to blame her problems on others. The character that appears most often in her routines is her therapist, and she has a great angle about bringing her friends’ problems to the couch to be solved because they couldn’t afford the fee.

The comic’s own diagnosis is that many of her troubles are due to her parents’ divorce, though she doesn’t make it sound particularly acrimonious. Then again, Ashfaq’s comedy is not of great extremes, but finding the funny in the everyday.

Some of these quotidian observations are undercooked, while some of the rants seem contrived of the sake of creating a routine. Does she really have such antipathy towards sunglasses-wearers, for example? It might work better if it was a stronger joke on her irrational intolerance, but we’re supposed to buy into her hatred of a commonplace object. Nonetheless, the audience bought into the premise so strongly that one woman shrieked in mortification that she’d got a pair. 

Ashfaq occasionally attempts something a little more weighty, but it’s understandable why she sometimes plays it safe when even the mildest comment about Allah from this Muslim comic creates a palpable frisson.

While she’s appealing to conservative tastes (as plenty of the most successful comedians do), there are also some great lines peppering her relatively superficial, first-hand observational routines. The ‘inshallah’, laissez-faire style of parenting she received was revealing - and possibly just the tip of an iceberg of material – and there’s a great anecdote from the unpromising premise of her mum shoeing pigeons off the balcony every day.

We end with a dependable gimmick, reading out from her teenage diary – such a common trope that Rufus Hounds presents a long-running Radio 4 series based on it. Still, hers hits all the amusing notes it needs, from overwrought yearning to clumsy analogies for her sexual awakenings and a wild fickleness in matters of the heart. It might be a familiar premise but is expertly executed.

While there may be greater artistic rewards should she drill deeper into her life, Ashfaq nonetheless delivers a solid debut, showcasing her thoroughly engaging persona.

• Urooj Ashfaq: Oh No! is on at Assembly George Square at 8.50pm.

Review date: 4 Aug 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett