Who wouldn’t want to hold the fate of those who’ve wronged them in their hands? The American justice system offers just this decision to Kiran Deol – which, if they knew her day job, they might have wished to reconsider. But it’s good news they did, because that You Be the Judge moment is the most engrossing of her new show Joysuck, which recounts her experience of violent assault, recovery and the sentencing of her assailant.
Deol is that most unlikely combination, a standup comic and Oscar-shortlisted documentarian, for a 2010 film about female Nepalese rebels. That project cultivated her interest in agency and victimhood, which becomes a theme here, after Deol – out drinking with a friend – has a glass bottle smashed in her face by a stranger. Her nose requires reconstructive surgery: cue jokes about her novice doctor and her requests to be made more pretty. Her aggressor is caught, and Deol is invited to advise on his punishment – or otherwise.
Before that, the show opens with recollections of playground racial slurs back when Deol was a British schoolchild. Judging by her standup style, she’s considerably more American – Hollywood, even – than British now. The manner is slick bordering on facile; the cynicism pat; the show – remarkable, given its horrific subject matter – a bit too smoothed around the edges. Of course such an experience must be processed before being turned into comedy. But in place of the sometimes glib jokes (in the instant of the attack, Deol tells us, she thought “am I going to have to start giving really brave TED Talks?” Really?) I began to crave some real, gnarly feeling.
Instead, we get charisma and technical prowess from Deol, and jokes of variable quality. The ones about farting in court? OK, maybe she is British after all. The one about the boost to her comedian’s ego when legal documents declare “the people” to be on her side? Very droll. But it’s when her attacker’s sentencing is to be decided, with her input – a dilemma she opens up compellingly to the crowd – that Deol’s show about villainy, victimhood and agency really comes alive.
At Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh, until 28 August
