There
are a lot of advantages in living near Edinurgh and being very into
theatre and comedy, 'cause not only do we have the annual Edinburgh
Fringe Festival in August, several busy theatres and quality a comedy
club, but given that it is relatively close to Glasgow a lot of acts who
are attending the Magner’s Glasgow Comedy Festival tend to venture
further east as well. Result.
 One
of the acts that fell into this category was Omid Djalili and we were
pleased that he was visiting again, as it seems ages since we have been
able to see him live. Mr Djalili is of course a veteran of numerous
movies playing roles in the likes of Gladiator and even James Bond
villains and had a very successful prime time series on BBC1 so he
certainly knows how to keep himself busy, even before undertaking this
marathon tour.
Opening
act for the 1000 plus Edinburgh Playhouse gig was the excellent Boothby
Graffoe. Both Sheila and I have been fans of this comedy performer/
singer /writer for more years than bears thinking about and were very
disappointed when he decided to concentrate on writing about a year ago,
so you can imagine our delight to have him on the bill, even if he only
did a short set. He did however perform a lot of our favourite songs and
gags and we fervently hope that this may spark a rethink on his behalf
and he may return to performing more regularly soon.
After
a short interval Omid hit the stage and was straight into his routine.
He has massive stage presence and charisma all mixed together with his
wicked sense of humour and some very clever and funny material. As a
British born comedian of Iranian heritage a fair amount of his set deals
with his ethnicity, both educating yet finding the funny side of
situations he has encountered. For way in the excess of an hour with a
combination of gags, stories, accents, singing
and of course his now famous 'interpretive dance' sessions. Mr
Djalili, who attracts a widely diversified crowd
of all ages, races and creeds, has got his very funny idea to
make terrorist groups less attractive simply by renaming them...and it
might just work.
Omid
is midway through his tour at present and it continues until mid April.
Take my advise, if he is coming to a venue anywhere near you do yourself
a favour and try to get a ticket. The tour is listed on his website
www.omidnoagenda.com, so check it out today.
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