Arnab Chanda @ PBH, Voodoo Rooms

Arnab Chanda has an impressive stage presence: he's one of those rare comics who can laugh at his own jokes and not come across as egotistical. Even slip-ups and errors are brushed off and seem so natural you’d be forgiven for assuming they were planned all along.

He brings a lot to the table with his storytelling skill, and material ranges from his unconventional upbringing, learning how to cope with alopecia and the time he encountered some not-so-casual racism while on a date.

Boy from Earth is also introduced as being a show about coping with loneliness, but other than this opener the concept is dropped for the remaining hour, fizzling out like much of his other anecdotes.

In a similar vein, Chanda tells the audience that he’s decided to finish with an entirely new ending. This is a gamble that doesn’t pay off and in fact gets cut off prematurely by Chanda in favour of a garden-variety “You’ve been a great crowd” to round things up.

Boy from Earth relies heavily on Chanda’s charisma to carry the hour. Unfortunately, it can’t do so alone.

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Arnab Chanda: Boy From Earth, PBH's Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms (The Speakeasy), until 25 Aug (not 14, 21), 7.40pm, free