At some point last year, I was sitting at home relaxing when I received a phone call from a very drunk and very over-excited, pal of mine. I think it was a Tuesday afternoon but this wasn’t an unusual occurrence – he works in finance and had had a lunch meeting. He’d managed to score tickets to a comedy gig down in Vauxhall later that night, the bill featured ten acts and an MC, and he was swearing blind that three of these clowns were absolutely top notch.

As I always think it’s smart policy to trust people who are drunk by 3pm midweek, I headed out to meet him… and I am so glad that I did. He could not have been more accurate with his recommendation as their performances stood head and shoulders above everyone else who took to the stage that night. Those three clowns were Jamie Hutchinson, Vittorio Angelone and Eshaan Akbar.

Scroll forward to present day and I was thrilled to see that Eshaan Akbar would be performing his latest show whilst I was up in Edinburgh for the week. I grabbed the tickets immediately and when the date rolled around, I was in the basement bar next to The Stand an hour early waiting for the doors to open. It’s amazing how some venues just ooze comedy, and The Stand is one of those classic spots, the atmosphere on a random rainy Wednesday night was fringe-esque and the place was packed. You just knew it was going to be a good night.

Quick shout-out to Connor Burn, who acted as the warm-up for our clown on this evening but, as he jokingly (though rightly) pointed out, the gig was beneath him. Quick-witted, cutting and incredibly comfortable on stage, this clown is super funny and I’d very much like to see more of his material. I guess I should think of this slot as more of a ‘trailer’ than a warm-up act nowadays.

With the crowd a couple of drinks down and the atmosphere still buzzing, our clown for the evening Eshaan hops up on to the stage, grabs the mic and instantly asks a lad in the front row “Do you have a favourite racism?” The nervous garbling non-response that he receives seems to be the correct answer as it allowed our clown to get to the crux of his show – not racism per se, but the unnecessary and over the top reactions to even the most harmless of comments (especially when taken into context) in today’s society that may actually be making things worse.

This is a fascinating set taking us on a genuinely hilarious journey through his own personal relationship with racism – raging from his parents to each other (Akbar’s mother is from Bangladesh and his Father is Pakistani), to tales of becoming a member of the EDL’s ‘favourite Asian’, an accolade of which our clown is incredibly proud.

There is a power to this performance, and there are times when you get that moment that Reginald D Hunter always used to refer to as ‘interesting’ rather than ‘funny’, where he would drop a line that made you pause and think… before coming in with the jackhammer punchline. Based on this performance, Eshaan Akbar has that ability in his comedy wheelhouse, and it will be fascinating to see how far his star will rise – already he has just signed on to the new season of Sex Education on Netflix.

Poignant, punchy, heartfelt and hilarious, this was a cracking gig.

Clown Stars: * * * *

@The Stand, Edinburgh