Singh Kohli says this is his first time, but you can tell he's done it before... or something like it.
He has written, directed and presented BAFTA-winning shows, and has twice been nominated Scottish Columnist of the Year. He has appeared on numerous TV and Radio channels in various guises and has toured with his own comedy-cookery show. But Hardeep Singh Kohli has never actually stood alone in the stand-up-comedy-spotlight before – until now.
As the audience came in, out of the rain, a recording of the late Harry Lauder was crackling away in the background. Once referred to by Churchill (Winston) as, ‘Scotland’s greatest ever ambassador’, his name is familiar to most Edinburgers these days as, ‘the road that runs past Portobello’. Lauder’s songs seemed a curious choice of ambient mood-setting, but Kohli soon revealed himself to be a man as rooted in the past as Harry’s old 78s.
All the way from the ‘other side of the M8’, Kohli sashayed onto the stage to the tune of the Bee Gees’ Hardeep is Your Love, a song that - as we all know - was written for and about him, and is also the title of his stand-up show. This show is all about love. And sex. From the sacred to the profane, the sublime to the ridiculous.
Largely autobiographical in style, Kohli described, to our intense amusement, the bewilderment of growing up in Glasgow with no brown role-models of love - either at home, in his neighbourhood, in films or on TV. He skipped through his twenty-something-year marriage, moving swiftly on to the far more laugh-lucrative romance he enjoyed with Amy, who was 17 years his junior and whom he loved utterly and completely.
More hilarity hit the mark as he then described being spat out the other end of this relationship, into the foreign land of texting, twittering and tweeting and the ambiguous delights of internet dating.
Along the way, we discovered why he asked his parents if they had written the Kama Sutra; why you should not mention Churchill (the dog); and why his cousin found himself, without his trousers, on a train bound for Birmingham and true love.
And this is a show that is as much about truth as it is about love. There is a touching truth in the stories he tells and a truthful integrity in the way he tells them. He has mastered many arts but has now lain bare how he has - so far - failed to master the art of love. And fortunately, this is very funny. Hardeep – what’s not to love?
Tour Dates Remaining:
Venue: Cricket Club BATH (part of the Bath Comedy Festival)
Dates: Saturday, 29th March 2014
Box Office: 0800 411 8881
Online: www.bathcomedy.com
Venue: Norden Farm MAIDENHEAD
Dates: Sunday, 30th March 2014
Box Office: 01628 788 997
Online: www.nordenfarm.org
Venue: Adam Smith Theatre KIRKCALDY
Dates: Sunday, 13th April 2014
Box Office: 01592 583302
Online: www.onfife.com