EDINBURGH COMEDY AWARD 2010 – BEST NEWCOMER nominee
IMRAN YUSUF
BRING THE THUNDER!!
AS PART OF THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2011
Venue: Pleasance – Beneath (Venue 33)
Dates: 3rd to 29th August 2011
Time: 7.00pm (8.00pm)
Box office: 0131 556 6550
Internet: www.pleasance.co.uk
www.edfringe.co.uk
“BY NOT FOCUSING ON THE OBVIOUS RACIAL STEREOTYPES, HE WINS OVER THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE. HIS HAPPY, POSITIVE PERSONALITY LEAVES THEM FEELING UPLIFTED, ENERGISED AND PRIVILEGED TO HAVE HAD AN AUDIENCE WITH IMRAN YUSUF” ***** Chortle
Join Imran Yusuf for his brand new show Bring The Thunder!! – the sequel to his 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nominated show, An Audience With Imran Yusuf. This is a show about pursuing your dreams with unrelenting enthusiasm and perseverance from the star of Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.
Motivating, inspiring and 100% comedy!
‘a fresh new comic voice…sharp, passionate and uplifting’ **** The Telegraph
Date of live review: Monday 8th Aug, ‘11
Imran Yusuf’s birthplace was Mombasa, his parents Muslims of Indian descent, but he was raised in Hackney, East London. (“I was born in the Third World, and upgraded to the ghetto.”) He insist that he never fitted in anywhere, yet appears far from bitter. Rather, his complex background here fuels a set that is, above all, an unflinchingly optimistic challenge to David Cameron’s famous assertion earlier this year that “[state] multi-culturalism has failed” – tragically incongruous in this dark week, but arguably all the more necessary too.
A garlanded Fringe newcomer last year, Yusuf is, then, a fellow with serious points to make. But this proud Briton always puts his case playfully, mocking both sides of the religious divide and even drolly fusing the two. His Islamic My Old Man’s a Dustman, for example, is very nicely done.
He wittily riffs on people’s vain attempts to pigeonhole him ethnically, on the lessons we can learn from the Arab spring, on growing up a Muslim in a predominantly white city. He also enjoys upbraiding us for our reactions to his material, twice twinklingly accusing us of racism for laughing at it.
Girls, too, have clearly been a source of angst for Yusuf in the past (join the queue, matey), and Bring the Thunder is also, in part, this nattily dressed but rail-thin fellow’s personally cathartic plee for women to use their “great power” over men with “great responsibility”. If Spider-Man can do it, he suggests, surely they can too – and, if this bid for romantic clemency is a little one-way, his stance is nothing if not humble.
So, a fresh new comic voice in a show that’s essentially a sharp, passionate and uplifting bid for people to follow their professional dreams (as he has) and be nicer to each other across all divides. Anything is possible, Yusuf insists. World peace. Even a white guy winning the 100m sprint. Just don’t let him hear you chuckling at such racially unsound material…
Review by Mark Monahan. The Telegraph
“strong, clever material which builds to a thoroughly uplifting finale…fascinating” **** FEST
Date of live review: Sunday 7th Aug, ‘11
Imran Yusuf is by no means short of confidence. It’s perhaps not surprising: the Kenyan-born, Hackney-raised ex-computer games tester played 101 shows in 25 days at the 2010 Fringe. It’s an experience which, clearly, has left its mark. Here Yusuf breezes through a set of strong, clever material which builds to a thoroughly uplifting finale.
It is identity—specifically it’s malleability and ambiguity—which provides Yusuf with his comedic fodder. Undoubtedly, he speaks from a fascinating place on the topic, his mixed heritage providing him with a unique angle on national identity. This is a cultural no man’s land he works to his advantage, allowing him to exercise his knack for taking topics to the bounds of acceptability, digging deeper into uncomfortable territory on race and religion before dropping, erm, the comedic bomb.
This ebb and flow also allows him room to be, for want of a better word, preachy. But Yusuf steers well clear of boorishness, instead crafting a well rounded show whose central message—that it’s totally right-on to be yourself and to let others do the same—comes through gleefully, stripping away our various affiliations rather than asserting a political one of his own.
There’s the odd weak point – Yusuf can do much better than jokes about boobs and Back to the Future, and a recurring theme of him being “gangster” never looks close to sprouting wings. But these are moments of timidity among otherwise braver material. There are few comedians willing to recite the Qur’an as part of their finale – and still fewer who could make it work.
Review by Evan Beswick, FEST Mag
———————————————————————————
2011 Show Promo Continued
“IMRAN YUSUF’S SHOW HERALDS THE BIRTH OF A NEW COMEDY STAR. INTELLIGENT, THOUGHT–PROVOKING AND LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY” **** Time Out
An Audience With Imran Yusuf catapulted Imran from a relatively unknown performer to one of the most talked about comedians of The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010.
Fast and furious yet charmingly endearing, his is a unique voice with his seemingly light-hearted satire frequently masking hard-hitting topical commentary on contemporary issues such as racism, sexism and religion.
“AN HOUR OF CHEEK AND CHARM” **** Independent
Born in Mombasa, Kenya and raised in the UK with a brief stint at school in the USA, Imran travelled much of the world including Israel/Palestine, Jordan and Saudi Arabia during the Lebanon Crisis in 2006. His work has been inspired by this rich multicultural background, giving him a youthful, energetic and highly original voice that embodies the multi-cultural wealth that exists in modern Britain.
In 2010, Imran presented his debut solo show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show was part of the Laughing Horse Free Festival and it was Imran’s intention to develop his craft and material at the Fringe whilst at the same time keeping under the radar of the UK Comedy Industry and Press. However, word about the show got out and within a week Imran had gained the first of a collection of 5 star reviews, which led to him being nominated for Best Newcomer in the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award 2010 (He was the first performer from The Free Festival to be nominated in the history of the Awards).
Imran has also appeared on the Edinburgh Comedy Gala (BBC3) and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Road Show (BBC1).
www.imranyusuf.com
For further information and images please contact:
Andrew Dingley on 0845 459 56 56 ext.227 or by email at andrew@hahaheehee.com
Comic Voice Management is part of The Comedy Club Ltd Group of Companies.
TAKE ME BACK TO IMRAN YUSUF’S OFFICIAL MANAGEMENT PAGE
