Andi Osho: Afroblighty

Though far from being the first comic act to discuss multicultural Britain, Andi Osho’s Afroblighty has a flair that will win her more fans this festival.

Kicking off with an extended bout of audience chat, the intimate venue allows Osho to speak to almost half the people in the room. Hers is an easygoing style of comedy that seeks to make firm friends with the audience. She has all the charm of an experienced TV presenter, but with a quick-fire wit that keeps the show moving at a swift pace.

Managing to discuss her cultural and racial identity without once seeming self-absorbed, her depictions of growing up in London in a Nigerian family provide some of the best material. Her home borough of Newham, where residents’ idea of five-a-day is apparently “a blue WKD, a packet of Fruit Pastels, a spliff, chips and a punch-up” is described in vivid detail. 

As she moves on to politics towards the end the material becomes decidedly weaker. There are some familiar jibes at political correctness, hardly a new target to attack from the left or the right, and a standard took-you-long-enough gag about America’s first black President.

Ending the show with a spoken-word poem on British identity is likely to be a divisive touch. For some it will tug on a few heartstrings, others will find it overly earnest and contrived.