Anirban Dasgupta from Mumbai has been a stand-up comic for over 10 years.  He has well-honed his trade.  India has the largest population in the world. You might think they would have adapted to modern ways but this is not the case. With such numbers, there is always someone who would be offended by a joke: as a result, in India, you write the apology before the joke.

He tells the story of his parents soon after they were married.  They moved into a house run by a senior family member.  There were 31 people living there and you could not have a child unless there was a vacancy in that number.  So Anirban Dasgupta was born to his parents when they were 41 years old. Born into dead man’s shoes! 

He explains his view of the policies of Mahatma Ghandi as,  “Do nothing and hope it gets better”. Clearly it hasn’t.  Fake news is an increasing problem but even here in this country, you can see he is very cautious about upsetting someone. The apologies become another and original source of humour. No jokes about call centres here!

His jokes, mostly based on truths, I suspect, are well told and refreshingly entertaining.  There was a group of Indians in the audience who absolutely fell about laughing at his jokes, so he clearly knows his subject.  

This is a good comedy standup show, very well told and very cautious not to upset anyone, without an advance disclaimer. He delivers his punchlines with unbridled giggles and we join in. I laughed and the audience all seemed to enjoy it; I certainly would recommend catching his original show.  You can watch Take It Easy and his dark comedy Afsos on Amazon Prime.  Polite Provocation gains five Fringe Festival Stars (FFS) from Theatrevibe the site that doesn’t do stars