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Just the Tonic at The Caves
Aug 10-13, 15-27 (18:00)

Finis Coronat Opus

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Sachin Kumarendran in no leathery pilot of long worn-out comedy themes & memes, but quite a fresh-faced, & freshly polish’d, up & coming talent. British-Asian via the Sri Lankan route, Sachin Kumarendran hardly ever touches upon this fibre of his being, except for the fact that he’d chosen not to ‘cash in,’ so to speak, on creating a British Asian comedy think-tank in order to win a sluice-worth of gushing reviews from a reviewing diaspora afraid to say anything that might even be remotely consider’d as racially indiscreet. So nice one, Sachin, let’s see what your comedy can do for itself.

‘Deceit‘ is essentially the product of what I can imagine was a drunken night in which Sachin wrote down a list of topics that could offend, or at least shock, people – fleshlights, ketamine, mass shooters kinda vibes -, around which he built otter dams of comedy earth to secure the flow of the show. Every now & again he also tosses into the mix a pondering, pesterous lovetale, & I’m still not sure if his girlfriend was real or not.

Once the list has reach’d its natural denouement, Sachin bolts on a wonderful power-pointed section, brim-bursting with applicatory efforts to get on various TV shows in recent years, alongside his quest for the perfect Edinburgh flyer quote. Don’t wanna give too much away, but this section is especially watchable stuff, & at a time when most comedians are flagging, Sachin is just hitting his stride.

As I came to the end of his hour of neoclassical ‘establish, reinforce, surprise‘ comedy, it suddenly occur’d to me, like a finger of rosy-finger’d dawn, that in my position as his reviewer I had to, y’know, mark him. Now then, I’d set my yardstick at the weekend, giving Rob Auton three stars, for example, but my gut instinct was my hour with Sachin was better, but why? I soon found the answer, he’s just really damn like-able, & it’s a joyous treat to be entertain’d by him. I mean, I can’t think of any other comedian better suited for a 6PM slot, & the lad’s only 28 years-old, & I’m sure he’ll be night-crawling higher up the echelons as the Fringes tick by.

Damo