Having been a fan of Chowdhry’s ever since seeing him step on stage for his first televised headline show, What’s Happening White People? in 2012, I was instantly captured by his technique as a stand up comedian. His witty observations and brilliantly-timed deliveries always make for such an energetic set, that you can’t help but fall about in stitches. He was also one of my clear stand out performers at this year’s Channel Four’s Comedy Gala, you can read my review here.
Surrounded by 3,000 fellow fans, everyone was ready and waiting to laugh, and also hoping that “Dave” would make an appearance!
The minute Paul took to the stage, there was raucous cheers echoing from every corner of the venue, a true testament to the comedian’s effect on the audience. PC’s World, as a show, is a clever combination of satirising racial barriers still present in our society (a trademark skill of Chowdhry’s) and, something I’ve never encountered within a headline show, allowing a Q&A with the audience. Both were done to hilarious effects.
Paul quickly established a “Dave” in the front row, and the jokes just came rolling on thereafter; the set being frequently interrupted by eruptions of applause from the audience. Every comment and curveball that was thrown Chowdhry’s way, was dealt with with experience and ease. The prime example being a woman who left a picture and a sharpie onstage during the interval, Chowdhry was brilliant, he just drew a dick on the picture and gave it back to her, innit?
The ending was phenomenal, a brave move that only a comedian with the confidence, style and accent ability of Chowdhry’s could pull off. The Q&A was filled with weird and wonderful remarks from the crowd, with just as witty retorts from Paul himself. Every response didn’t miss a beat, my favourite being when an audience member asked, “What do you think of Cameron and the pigs?” One second pause. “Well, it’s not Halal innit?”
In many cases, watching comedians on the TV always sees a slicker and more free-flowing set given, than live. But watching Paul Chowdhry at the Hammersmith Apollo, was better than any recorded comedy I had ever seen.