Romesh Ranganathan: Rom Com at the Soho Theatre

Romesh Ranganathan’s self-styled “rom com” as he likes to call it, is not in the slightest bit romantic, but excels instead in the comic approach to things.

His life has lacked everything that happens in a romantic comedy. For Romesh, the order is as follows: boy meets girl, boy and girl settle down, boy and girl buy a house, boy and girl have children, boy and girl watch television every night waiting around to die. It is a sad, mundane state of affairs that Romesh has found himself in, but he hasn’t lost the ability to make people laugh.

Drawing inspiration from his married life, Romesh’s rants range from his own qualms regarding the misguided moral teachings of the film Finding Nemo to the tedious dinner-table chat he is subjected to – that revolves around how to keep slugs out of the kitchen.

Romesh’s comedy demonstrated a firm self-awareness – he is not just an Asian comedian banging on about himself being Asian – no, far from it, as he sarcastically noted at the beginning of his set: “Please do not worry, only about 10% of the show is based on me being Asian…. the other 90% is based on my issues with white people.” 

Romesh tackles a few racial stereotypes along the way, giving insight into one of his favourite pastimes of pretending to passers-by that he has just arrived in the country. In fact Romesh originates from Crawley. He admits he has a knack for letting his comic side slip into his personal life all too often with unfavourable outcomes, and he is worried that through his public cameos he may be inadvertently contributing to EDL support.

Romesh, the animal slaying vegan, is complex – a walking contradiction at every turn, he is also just a very funny man.

Thoralf Karlsen

Romesh Ranganathan: Rom Com is at Soho Theatre on 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th January at 7.30pm. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.