Omid Djalili (star of The Mummy and Gladiator) described himself as the Middle East鈥檚 answer to Keith Chegwin 鈥 he was selling himself well short. A master of the one-liner, accents and comedy stories, he was politically imaginative and charmingly offensive.听 Although you knew you shouldn鈥檛 laugh at a lot of his material, his warm delivery made it impossible not to! Omid Djalili, a British Iranian, was not afraid to talk cultural differences and stereotypes people believe he should meet. His main material centred around ethnic minorities. He covered serious topics with flare and hit you with punch lines when you least expected them. Some of the material was slightly uncomfortable, and you felt wrong finding humour in it, but his presentation of these situations was undoubtedly funny. A lot of his jokes played on the stereotypical ethnic minorities, showing really how we all, consciously or sub-consciously, stereotype people, and how little we sometimes know about different cultures. This gave a serious undertone to the performance. Oh, and he also admitted he really likes Godzilla. His version of audience participation was unique and easily the funniest thing I have seen in theatre recently. He played 鈥淐ultural Catchphrase鈥 with the audience, where different sections of those gathered in the Spa Centre performed various stereotypical cultural actions. I must give credit to a singular member of the audience who took to his difficult performance task with ease, and with wonderful results! This section of the performance left more than a few audience members in tears! Djalili鈥檚 execution of various regional and international accents was second to none. I don鈥檛 think I have ever seen anyone who can switch from a Liverpool accent to a Nigerian accent to a Leeds accent which such precision.听 The performance took the form of two halves. Towards the end of the first half I felt there was a slight lull, and worried that another 45 minutes may not be manageable, but I am pleased to say I was wrong. His material in the second half was even funnier than the first. His final story was a side-splitter, with the punch line coming from nowhere and the timing impeccable. There were a couple of occasions when I did feel material used previously in the performance was relied upon too much for another laugh, but this is only a small criticism of an otherwise brilliant performance.
Overall, Omid Djalili is a fantastic stand up comic, who highlights people鈥檚 understanding, and sometimes misunderstanding, of other cultures. A great entertainer, and a superb night out. --- Hannah is part of 成人快手 Coventry & Warwickshire's Citizen 1000 project, for more information and to find out how to apply, click on the link below: | 
