Nish Kumar: Who is Nish Kumar?

Being the nice guy is an oft underrated trait, but one that Nish Kumar is happily trading on in his first solo show. After six years at the Fringe, the London based comic is certainly no stranger to the stage, and his easy interaction with the audience is a testament to this.

But niceness alone can’t conceal the flaws in his set, and there is a void that his generic gags about singledom and coming from an ethnic minority are failing to fill. Covering familiar ground is fine if the quips are funny enough to make the audience ignore the clichéd subject matter, but some of the anecdotes lag, and the time devoted to them feels unjustified.

Where he does excel is in his quicker, intentionally cringeworthy gags – an aside about the importance of playing a 42 seater venue because it has been a “historically good number for Kumars in comedy” being a prime example. The biggest laughs of the night come when the comic divulges a few of his earlier ideas for show names, playing on the ubiquitous Fringe pun stereotypes and unveiling a whole host of gems. Yes, these quips are basic, but they tickle the audience far more than his comments about sexual reticence: jokes which could easily come (and do) from a number of standups already on the circuit. By the end of the set, I’m not convinced anyone knows who Nish Kumar is—his throughline, that of identity, lacks focus and feels confused—and therein lies the problem.