Out to Lunch with Shappi Khorsandi

I was going to start this post by saying

If you liked your comedy dark and spicy ...

... but that sounds like a line straight out of Shappi Khorsandi’s mouth!

Flying over to Belfast wearing her Ugg boots and expecting to appear on Out to Lunch - a local radio show - Shappi helped the local economy by purchasing more stylish shoes to accompany her Guinness-fuelled lunchtime gig as part of the Out to Lunch festival.

An intimate affair *not* with more that a hundred people crammed around tables, supping their stew and pasta in the gloom while Shappi tried to break the ice and get her routine going.

Born in Iran, moved to London, moved across London, and now appearing on Radio 4, Shappi regaled the gathered punters with a loosely coupled set of material, imitating a range of accents and with few subjects off limits. Quite an in-your-face routine for so early in the day. But she pulled it off with style, telling jokes at the expense of family members, most minorities, most majorities, Israel, Iran, the audience, and not forgetting herself. Offence liberally doled out to all sections of society.

Talking about her early life in London, Shappi quipped how she was sent to the

“Brownies … an after school club for Asian kids!”

Anyone sitting in the front row was a fair target for Shappi’s inquisitive probing – particularly if you walked across the front of the stage after her routine started, tried to withhold information, or admitted to being Iranian. So alongside Shappi, the stars of the show included the (often-random) interventions from Rosie, Joan and Reza.

Many of her jokes have race at the heart of them. One memorable line ran

“I read the Daily Mail. All the other apers turn your fingers inky. The Daily Mail turns your fingers white!”

A good start to the short season of lunchtime (and some evening) events. Check out last week’s post about the festival and get your tickets booked early for the other performances over the next two and a half weeks.