January 18, 2007
Most famous as the only Iranian comic working in the West, and soon to have access to a wider audience through his recently commissioned BBC show (due to air this year sometime), Omid Djalili kicked off his UK tour to a packed and appreciative Playhouse audience.
His wide variety of previous work has included appearances in The Mummy and Gladiator, as well as working in the USA with Whoopi Goldberg and in his own HBO comedy special.
For those that have seen him before he was in a slightly more relaxed, less physical mode than previously. Admittedly testing new material, Djalili was often hilarious in his analysis of our supposedly more multicultural society: heavy on the references to 9/11 and 21/7, re-educating Milwall supporters and the treatment of Shilpa Shetty in the Big Brother house. An excellent snippet from his new TV show illustrates this perfectly:
“Welcome to terrorist school. Where’s your bag?”
“I left it on the bus, sir”
“Good boy. House point!”
Whether interacting with the variety of nationals in the audience or recounting his Iranian family’s embarrassing traits his material worked well, accompanied with excellent timing and bursts of occasional manic physicality. Godzilla made a welcome appearance, as did his father in a brilliantly set up comic drop concerning how to slap a skinhead in the cinema – three times - and get away with it!
The Iranian Disco demonstration encore brought the house down, ending a thoroughly successful show with rapturous applause. As he said himself: over the course of a tour the material changes and develops. Having seen the first night of this tour, the rest of his audiences are in for a real treat.
His wide variety of previous work has included appearances in The Mummy and Gladiator, as well as working in the USA with Whoopi Goldberg and in his own HBO comedy special.
For those that have seen him before he was in a slightly more relaxed, less physical mode than previously. Admittedly testing new material, Djalili was often hilarious in his analysis of our supposedly more multicultural society: heavy on the references to 9/11 and 21/7, re-educating Milwall supporters and the treatment of Shilpa Shetty in the Big Brother house. An excellent snippet from his new TV show illustrates this perfectly:
“Welcome to terrorist school. Where’s your bag?”
“I left it on the bus, sir”
“Good boy. House point!”
Whether interacting with the variety of nationals in the audience or recounting his Iranian family’s embarrassing traits his material worked well, accompanied with excellent timing and bursts of occasional manic physicality. Godzilla made a welcome appearance, as did his father in a brilliantly set up comic drop concerning how to slap a skinhead in the cinema – three times - and get away with it!
The Iranian Disco demonstration encore brought the house down, ending a thoroughly successful show with rapturous applause. As he said himself: over the course of a tour the material changes and develops. Having seen the first night of this tour, the rest of his audiences are in for a real treat.