Review: Romesh Ranganathan at the Cambridge Corn Exchange
He’s rarely off our screens, but I was curious to see what stand-up comedian/actor/TV personality/podcaster Romesh Ranganathan was like as a live performer. I got the chance on Friday, October 7, when he came to the Cambridge Corn Exchange to try out some new material.
After a well-received support slot from Daniel Foxx (I particularly enjoyed the story from his children’s book for privileged children), Romesh’s show good off to a good start, his observations on marriage, sex, romance and other topics of a similar nature drawing a great deal of laughter from what seemed like a packed auditorium.
The former maths teacher self-deprecatingly spoke of his former life, some of the perils of being a middle-aged man, aspects of his cultural background, and also commented on his life and family.
He mused on hypocritical people and people who are two-faced, concluding that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and joked that he’s a big name in the entertainment world “as long as diversity continues”.
Coming out at the start of the second half, the 45-year-old expertly put a heckler in his place and then looked back over his recent experience of trending on Twitter following comments made by actor and political activist Laurence Fox about Romesh’s support of the much-ridiculed ‘maaate’ campaign – aka Have A Word – orchestrated by London mayor Sadiq Khan. He also revealed some of the shocking abuse he received online.
While the comic made the odd political statement typical of most mainstream comedians, politics was thankfully kept to a minimum and there was certainly some very well-written and acutely-observed material to enjoy.
Not all of it hit the mark, however – a bit about toilet paper and another bit about theme parks weren’t particularly funny – but this was a work-in-progress gig after all.
Overall, I was impressed and I’d like to see which of the jokes make the ‘final cut’ when Romesh takes his Hustle tour out on the road next year.
[Read more: Rich Wilson: ‘We’ve all been heroes, we’ve all been villains’]
For more on Romesh Ranganathan, visit romeshranganathan.co.uk.