Comedy review: Romesh Ranganathan, Irrational

Romesh Ranganathan. Photo / NZ Comedy Fest

"Ban Iggy Azalea, join ISIS".

If that's not one hell of a tagline for a comedy show I don't know what is.

Romesh Ranganathan is a risk taker, the kind of comic who will joke about being a "brown man with a beard" in an airport and later tell the crowd to "join ISIS" after shouting "down with the West".

It's not in-your-face race comedy though, it's just smart. Every time you think Ranganathan is about to launch into dangerous territory - people physically tensed up when he started talking about homosexuality - he just skirts the edge of it and somehow manages to turn the audience's own expectations into the joke.

The British comic deals largely in observational comedy, telling tales from Starbucks, Disneyland and the local pools while subtly weaving in issues of race, self-image, sexuality, parenting and more with his own curmudgeonly twist.

He's the first comedian who I've seen talk at length about his children and his family life and not disliked for it. Ranganathan smack-talking his own kids is legitimately hilarious whether you have (or like) kids or not.

He's also one of very few comedians I've seen who make audience participation so funny you cry.

His banter with a chap in the front row and a woman who was game enough to leave part way through (to get more drinks) was good enough, but when one woman's laugh combined with another woman's heckling, things just flat out flew off the rails.

Totally put off by it all, Ranganathan tried and failed to start a joke multiple times, each time laughing so much he could barely speak let alone keep a straight face and eventually he just told everyone to "f*** off" so he could get through it.

And his rage over the smallest things - people walking slowly, Android users, reality TV - is so hilariously relatable.

Ranganathan's brand of comedy is just about all you could want; inappropriate but not boorishly offensive, relatable but not predictably so, risky but not cringe inducing, smart and informed, and funny enough to bring tears to your eyes way more than once.