Shazia Mirza

As one of Britain’s most recognisable female Asian comedians, it’s surely not unreasonable to expect that an hour spent with Shazia Mirza might be at least a little amusing? Sadly, anyone entertaining that thought would be wrong: with material that checks all the usual boxes – honour killings, suicide bombs and arranged marriages all included – there’s nothing new or interesting about Mirza’s show. Her intention is to uncover and send-up the main problems that affect Britain’s Asian community but, while the pertinent issues she talks about offer much comedic potential, they fall flat on the ears of this clearly bored audience.

Having first come to light by performing her stand-up in hijab dress in the wake of 9/11, Mirza went on to be voted one of The Observer’s 50 funniest acts in Britain in 2003. Clearly, precious time has passed since then. Today, her musings on two of Britain’s most maligned social groups – Muslims and chavs – masquerade as wry observations. In reality, they’re half-hearted quips: too limp to qualify as one-liners and too dull to pass for everyday conversation. And when Mirza ends her spellbindingly poor set with a hapless video of her dressed up as an East London rude girl stealing shoes from outside a mosque, she makes one thing abundantly clear: people fail to laugh at her jokes not because (as she suspects) “The Guardian says no”, but simply because common sense does.