Pali & Jay’s Ultimate Asian Wedding DJ Roadshow
with Tez Ilyas, Viraj Juneja
written by Viraj Juneja • directed by Ameet Chana
Assembly George Square, Underground • Fringe 2024 ★★★★
A knowing attention to detail and extremely likeable characters combine to lift this immersive two-hander into something thoroughly entertaining. With the theatre set up as a wedding venue, we are offered a glimpse into the lives of the DJs on stage through a series of hilarious conversations and clever flashbacks. And it's strikingly well written and played by playwright Tez Ilyas and Viraj Juneja as loners from different generations who are finally beginning to understand the connection between them.
Even if others are dubious, Pali (Juneja) is proud of the business he has built up as a lively DJ at Asian events in Southall, West London. Fiercely protective of his equipment, he is thinking about promoting his enthusiastic young roadie Jay (Ilyas) to a DJ so he can book more gigs. But Jay isn't taking this very seriously. As they host a wedding reception, they begin to explore their past, including the DJ competition that made Pali afraid to take the mic himself. And now with his wife filing for divorce, Pali is feeling very alone.
Things are off-balance from the start, as the guests have arrived before they're ready. The set is a riotous barrage of technical equipment and colourful lighting rigs, adding to the authenticity of the characters, who are played with strong comical timing and real emotion by the engaging Ilyas and Juneja. The script is funny and knowing, flickering through witty slapstick as well as much darker drama. And it's deepened by character details and revelations that pull us in to the evolving relationship between this uncle and nephew. We root for them to sort things out and move forward. And in the end we want to get onto the dance floor ourselves.
Derek Mitchell: Double Dutch Pleasance Courtyard, Baby Grand • Fringe 2024 ★★★★★
Bounding on-stage in a Dutch milkmaid's outfit, complete with bonnet and wooden clogs, Derek Mitchell uses his huge smile and slapstick physicality to great effect as he explores the immigrant experience through his own personal history as a guy from the American Midwest who lives between the Netherlands and Great Britain. This allows him to get very silly as he pokes fun at his own cultures while also making some pointed comments about the bigger issues. For example, he recognises that he is a "business class" immigrant as opposed to an "economy" refugee.
All of this is framed by his desire to make everyone feel comfortable, so he gleefully pokes fun at cultural differences, linguistic quirks and the tricks all of us use to put each other at ease. Mitchell is an expert storyteller, hilariously throwing in pitch-black asides as he skilfully switches accents. He isolates the primary difference in the way the Dutch are unsentimental and unapologetic, as opposed to how the English are never honest about their feelings. And he skilfully interacts with the audience on a very personal level.
Along the way, Mitchell continually provokes us to think about things from new perspectives, drawing out elements from audience members that he can juggle seamlessly into his patter. One of his more intriguing observations is about how closely we cling to the gibberish that identifies us, like a flag or an accent, superficial things that give us surprisingly deep feelings. This leads into a hilarious riff on pronouns ("I'm a millennial and I'm so tired of this!"), hostile airport architecture and more riotous true anecdotes about colourful people he has met along the way who have added something to his story.
Sid Singh: American Coloniser Just the Tonic Cabaret Voltaire, Liberty Room • Fringe 2024 ★★★★
Smart and loose, Sid Singh's stand-up is gleefully transgressive, constantly pushing the boundaries of enormous issues like racism and colonisation. So we often feel like we should be shocked by the things he is saying, especially as he criticises artists who deliberately evoke their ethnic identity in their work. But his delivery is so offhanded that, even if we feel like we need to disagree with him, we are willing to hear him out. And it of course helps that he keeps us laughing with his sharply pointed punchlines.
He begins by talking about how most countries in the world are in political turmoil at the moment with the annoying left and evil right, and he should know because he moonlights as a human rights lawyer. As an Indian-American, he feels like he has re-colonised himself by moving to Great Britain. So he launches into a series of hilarious gags about all three cultures, weaving in lingering historical issues from British imperialism to Nazi violence to the seriously dodgy antics of his own ancestors in India. And he reminds us that "I'm here to insult you, not teach you."
Singh's main target here is representation, which is often used to excuse horrific crimes or to exploit history for personal gain. A performer who centres work around their background culture is selling it, simplifying it and playing into dehumanising stereotypes. And this creates false ideas about the real issues in the world, sidelining truly urgent things like climate change and refugees. So in between the laugh-out-loud jokes and rambling anecdotes, Singh is reminding us that what we do now is more important than our past. And that we are more complex than what's repeated in those politically correct narratives.
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