The Lowry
Sunday 11th October
4 Stars
Stand up comedian Shazia Mirza undoubtedly proved why she is one of the 100 greatest comedy acts with a thoroughly entertaining and shocking performance. Much of her material was brilliantly written; however, we bizarrely found ourselves as one of the focuses of her show, making for a slightly daunting evening.
Emerging on stage self announced and dressed in black, her sparkle was saved by a pair of glittery pink doll shoes. Raising the stage lights, she used her first moments to get acquainted with the audience and pranced up and down the auditorium stairs in her pink platforms, ticking the audience off as she met them.
Revving up into no more or less than the Asian equivalent of Bridget Jones she went on a rampage rather like a light chit-chat with a sinister edge. Showing the need for props upon props in modern comedy is a delusion; some of the funniest parts of her performance came from the imitations she dropped here and there, ranging from characters such as the Queen to the local chavs and her mother.
Most of Mizra’s material focused on her experiences as a British Muslim woman. Quips here and there about terrorism gave subtle, but hilarious criticism on people’s ignorant perceptions since 9/11, whilst digs at how troubles within the Asian community were kept off Trisha but exposed on the national news were truly genius.
Towards the end Mirza lost her way and seemed to ramble but in some instances it was the unscripted quips with the audience which produced the most laughs…
Before we knew it, Mirza was standing before us, microphone in hand, mocking our note taking. Along with one poor bloke, we became the centrepiece of Mirza’s sarcastic derision when she deviated from her scripted performance.
After confirming that we were reviewing her show for a student newspaper, Mirza quipped “They sent two students to review the same show? And they say there’s a recession. Obviously not at your newspaper” which was met with raucous applause from the audience whereupon she informed us that she would be checking our notes later on. She certainly kept to her promise, coming over to us no fewer than three times and alluding to us sporadically throughout her act. At one point she snatched one of our notepads and began to read some of the critiques we made of her performance; there was a chasing scene between us and Mirza in an attempt to retrieve the notepad.
Thoroughly entertaining as it was, we were on tenterhooks throughout the whole performance, waiting for the next attack, and still we are unsure as to whether it added or detracted to our experience.
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