Shappi Khorsandi does have a bit of a samey delivery - however the fact that her material is actually funny unlike so called comedians who have been around for a while now and might have worked in a psychiatric ward.

Given the number of funny women this country has produced, I find the general level of females in standup (largely on TV) remains terribly mixed however. Jo Caulfield's turn on Comedy Roadshow last week was a bit old hat. The ladies never seem to have the same depth of material the chaps have, and Gina Yashere's Mock the Week appearance last week was largely anonymous apart from the topic of Michael Jackson.

Maybe she could team up with Omid Djalili and then we could get the same Iranian style racial jokes in stereo (or put them on a plane back to Tehran if you're that way inclined).

The trouble with 'Der Shap' is that she seems to be aping Omid's act but without any 'bite' whatsover. Plus how many times can you hear - My mother in law thinks I'm Pakistani, my driving instructor thinks I'm a suicide bomber, my kids think I'm a washing machine, etc.?

I think my problem with this show is that I've heard Shappi's material about five times before... some of it just a couple of weeks ago on Jonathan Ross. None of it is new.

Quote: Christian Cawley @ July 17 2009, 11:31 AM BST

Shappi Khorsandi does have a bit of a samey delivery - however the fact that her material is actually funny unlike so called comedians who have been around for a while now and might have worked in a psychiatric ward.

Given the number of funny women this country has produced, I find the general level of females in standup (largely on TV) remains terribly mixed however. Jo Caulfield's turn on Comedy Roadshow last week was a bit old hat. The ladies never seem to have the same depth of material the chaps have, and Gina Yashere's Mock the Week appearance last week was largely anonymous apart from the topic of Michael Jackson.

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Shappi has a couple of good jokes, 'Mullah lite' is funny, but agree that she lacks bite.

As for Gina, I've been a fan for a long time, but was disappointed in her MTW appearance, she made no impact at all. I'm sure quiz shows like MTW, 8of10c etc., are very competitive, and it must be hard to get a word in, but she let the side down ;(

I can't stand her. She's definetly very close to Omad Djalili, doing the same old "I'm British middle class but yet of Iranian heritage. Here come the hijinks!". There are some comedians who can use race to great effect (Stephen K. Amos has some great material along those lines) but it should never be the entire basis for an act. She comes off as very smug, throwing out punchline after punchline like each one is a witty gift to the audience.

I saw Shappi tonight at a local theatre. She did an Edinburgh preview in place of her support act (although as she said, considering it's two weeks away, she's written surprisingly little material!) and then her current show. There was a lot of promising material in the preview stuff - bits about George Galloway (or as she calls him Ayatollah Galloway) and the current protests - we had some good protest singing and the description of all the different types of people that go on protests.

She talked/apologised for the glut of her ethnicity material. She talked about how she would go to the BBC with all sorts of ideas (I was particularly excited by the Guerrilla Gardening programme she mentioned!) and they would say "ah, how lovely. A programme about your ethnicity!" "No, a programme about me disguising myself as a tree in Regents Park watching for Guerrilla gardeners". "That sounds brilliant. You can talk about Iran. And religion." She talked a bit about radio 4 and how PC they want to be and their Afternoon Plays with the "generic foreign accent". After telling a particularly dirty joke, she giggled and said "you don't hear that on radio 4! I'm so sorry - you probably all thought I was the embodiment of radio 4. I'm not!"

I thought she was tonnes better live than on the TV - she was just very conversational and chatty and slipped jokes in. The bits I've seen of her on the TV, she does come off a bit smug throwing the punchline out, but live she seemed a lot more natural. There were some bits I've heard - which she apologised for first - like a story about her sister with a nice Lily Allen song. Although she expanded on it and went on to sing some hymns at a rudeboy on the bus and told us that her younger sister doesn't really exist, but her cousin would kill her if she knew it was about her.

There were some good noisy French women in the audience, so she tried to show off her GCSE French at them - Je m'appelle Shappi. Je suis perdu. "Wahey! I never thought I would come to Maidenhead and not tell jokes, but stand on stage and talk French!"

She also made a glib remark about "the last time I was in Maidenhead..." and went on to talk about how they had to go into hiding in Windsor when her father had death threats and assassins after him in the 80s.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. She finished with a lovely joke about taking a taxi from one gig to another and the cabbie thinking she was a stripper. It was really good.

I fancy Shappi too. Is she releasing a live DVD anytime soon? Everbody else has.

Quote: Mark @ July 17 2009, 3:54 PM BST

I think my problem with this show is that I've heard Shappi's material about five times before... some of it just a couple of weeks ago on Jonathan Ross. None of it is new.

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Good point well made.

Quote: Mark @ July 17 2009, 3:54 PM BST

I think my problem with this show is that I've heard Shappi's material about five times before... some of it just a couple of weeks ago on Jonathan Ross. None of it is new.

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Aren't all comedians guilty of regurgitating material? It's only the proliferation of outlets that makes us notice it more nowadays.

I was going to say that I think that that is because we keep seeing her on the telly.
She had lots of material that I hadn't heard when I saw her. There was some lovely talk about Derek Acorah and the other mediums who always ask if anyone knows of a Margaret who has passed on. Well everyone knows a dead Margaret! They then continue by saying they are thinking of a John. Is there a John in here? What in this theatre filled with Anglo Saxon people?! I tell you, it takes a brave medium to say that the spirit world wants to contact a Sharparak!

Quote: SillyBry @ July 20 2009, 6:22 PM BST

I was going to say that I think that that is because we keep seeing her on the telly.
She had lots of material that I hadn't heard when I saw her. There was some lovely talk about Derek Acorah and the other mediums who always ask if anyone knows of a Margaret who has passed on. Well everyone knows a dead Margaret! They then continue by saying they are thinking of a John. Is there a John in here? What in this theatre filled with Anglo Saxon people?! I tell you, it takes a brave medium to say that the spirit world wants to contact a Sharparak!

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That's a Jasper Carrott joke too.

I've heard Dara O'Briain doing a similar joke. And Jimmy Carr. But it did have her own individual spin on it - there were many impressions of Derek Acorah and some mad rants about psychics - my memory and poor writing don't really do it justice. Anyhow, I enjoyed it. It reminded me of seeing Mark Watson - nothing was so hilarious that my stomach hurt or such, but it was a really enjoyable evening hosted by a really friendly, chatty, amiable person who happened to tell some intelligent and incisive jokes.

Dirty Bengali Boy Paul Sinha is the guest on the next show! www.paulsinha.com

Plug over.

Where is Shappi Khorsandi?

She was on a lot earlier this year (live at the apollo, jonathan ross, radio, book promotion etc), but now seems to have disappeared. I expected her to have a DVD out by now.