W Kamau Bell

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W Kamau Bell peers in at his audience. He’s heard there’s not many "obvious ethnics" in Scotland and surveying tonight’s array of shiny white faces, it looks like his fears have been realised. But being in the minority has never worried the lauded African-American comic before, and this year’s intelligent and refreshingly frank exploration of race and ethnicity is no different.

Presented as a pseudo sociology lecture, Bell’s central conceit is that to end racism we must first acknowledge that "race is not real", that it is simply a construct that we have imbued with social and cultural meaning. It’s a strong point and, surprisingly, a good starting point for a comedy show. Using the American news media (never a bad starting point for comedy) as well as questions about race in the American and British censuses, Bell demonstrates our elastic and often arbitrary categorisation of race (Arabs are apparently white, according to the US census).      

Somewhere, though, Bell’s point seems to morph from race as an empty category to race as an affirmative tool. Liberal whites like tonight’s audience, he implores, need to reclaim whiteness from the extremists. And apparently the first step is for us all to reimagine the James Brown mantra and sing "Say It Loud – I'm White and I'm Proud". Of course the problem with this is that ethnicity in Scotland is as much about national identity as skin colour, and unfortunately Bell’s US-centric show fails to fully grasp these British specificities.

But despite the occasional intellectual hole, Bell’s is an entertaining and thoughtful hour, showcasing both a playful curiosity and a light comedic touch.