A show of two halves, this one, from Indian standup Aditi Mittal, who rakes over Covid coals for its first 30 minutes, before a pivot to much sparkier material on a certain unnamed Indian prime minister and that country’s richest man. Perhaps we should forgive the relative weakness of that opening section, which recounts, after all, a period in which standups unavoidably lost some match fitness. But that can’t quite excuse Mittal’s so-so material on the subject, describing her scramble back to India on the eve of lockdown, and the mask-wearing, Zoom-gigging, socially distanced life that followed.
“Unalive” is how the 35-year-old describes her experience of lockdown, and how she titles this show. It also, alas, describes some inanimate jokes here, like the one that tries to explain Mittal’s resistance to masks, or her argument in favour of younger boyfriends, which feels less like a gag, more like an underdeveloped thought. Or the offputtingly glib remarks about Mumbai’s supposed imperviousness to Covid.
