Sumit Anand: Nothing About Godzilla

• Lauren McKay
• 22 August 2019

This article is from 2019

credit: Nicole Cleary

A little polish would improve a set of one-liners and lengthy tales

Sumit Anand is a fairly well-known name in his native India, and he may have been expecting more of a reception here in Edinburgh. You get the feeling that he's disgruntled at the size of audience he's been drawing, but maybe it's all part of his act; he's certainly not easy to read, with a laid-back, sardonic style of joke-telling. He works the audience into his set, jibing us for not laughing enough which, amusingly, are the moments which elicit the biggest laughs.

Anand's set is a fairly disjointed one, with no real narrative structure. He jumps from observation to observation with little flow between them, moving in a matter of moments from his perceptions of how Scottish people differ to Indians, to his battles with the microwave. He makes some interesting observations on common stand-up fodder like internet dating, and flits from genuinely funny one-liners to anecdotes which take slightly too long to reach a punchline. There are the makings of an exciting new comic in this hour-long show, but the delivery needs polished to help him draw those big attendances he really desires.

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, until 26 Aug, 7pm, £10–£12 (£9–£11).