‘I’ll be trustworthy with you: I’m getting sick of me too.” His TV ubiquity now the stuff of different comedians’ – and his personal – punchlines, how can Romesh Ranganathan justify one other night in his firm? Tonight, he begins by flattering the locals: a local of close by Crawley, he waxes nostalgic about slicing his standup tooth on the Brighton scene. However largely he’s an everyman, not only a Sussex man, a midlife misanthrope withdrawing from onerous work, self-improvement and the prospect of ever making any new mates. 45 years is sufficient, Romesh is right here to inform us: no extra effort will now be made.
The authenticity of this pose we would query, not least on condition that slimline Ranganathan ran the London marathon final weekend. However he wears the world-weariness effectively, taking it from time to time to droll extremes: see a set-piece about being compelled to vacation in Portugal with – horror of horrors – one other household. It’s not an unfamiliar pose for a middle-aged comedian, thoughts you: his Hustle present delivers laughs, however not the shock of the brand new. It’s at its greatest once we glimpse one thing significant for Ranganathan beneath the standard-issue curmudgeonliness. He alludes to his typically brittle psychological well being. There’s a routine about envying the straightforward happiness David Beckham will get from frying mushrooms. He contrasts banal small speak with the delinquent screaming happening in his head.
Elsewhere, it’s a combined bag. We all know what’s coming with the joke that begins by criticising Jeff Bezos and Amazon, however that doesn’t cease it being dispiriting. There’s some first-base materials on marital intercourse and anal hygiene. However there are additionally routines displaying the contact that made Ranganathan ubiquitous within the first place. A riff on males and soccer transposes on to much less seemingly situations the emotional expertise of seeing your workforce ship a purpose. A stout defence is launched of two-facedness, and – in a departure from the grumpiness – an amusing distinction drawn between hip-hop 2024-style, beloved of his son, and Romesh’s old-school various. It’s sufficient, greater than sufficient, to countenance switching Ranganathan off your TV screens for a few hours and coming to see him on stage as a substitute.
