“I am unhinged!” There’s nervous energy to burn in Tadiwa Mahlunge’s show, which traces the 25-year-old Welsh Zimbabwean’s need for validation from his high-standards upbringing (family motto: “Achieve or Die”) to his overworked adulthood. Mahlunge is a man on several missions: to impress his African parents, “obliterate his enemies”, and make us all laugh. At least one of those ambitions is accomplished by this fringe debut, Inhibition Exhibition. As he bounces around the stage, his comedy is forthright, self-mocking and fizzy.
There is an arresting mix of high anxiety and loud-and-proud delivery, as Mahlunge outlines the slight remove at which he sits from his family, his profession, fellow black people and more. Arriving in the UK as a refugee from Robert Mugabe (his mum co-founded the opposition alliance Movement for Democratic Change), Mahlunge has been set an example of probity, hard work and moral strength that is impossible to live up to. He’s trying – hence the posh accent, which leads pals in the barbershop to call him “white boy”. His upbringing, however, rules out living on the meagre proceeds of standup comedy, and so Mahlunge details his high-flying day jobs – and the ethics he has shelved to maintain them.
A tension arises, to my mind, between our host’s clamour for the audience’s affection and his amoral approach to working life; between “love me!” and “obliterate your enemies!” That tension could be productive, yet for now feels unresolved. But not unexplained. The picture Mahlunge paints of his family inheritance is vivid and nuanced: when he describes the first time his mum gave him credit for anything as “like watching AI achieve sentience”, you don’t wonder he’s grown up a little skew-whiff.
There are tales of his mother’s indefatigability and his “daddy issues”, and of a bike accident with racist overtones at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests. There are bulletins from inside the corporate world – specifically, an alarmingly broad sexual harassment questionnaire – that could be the basis of a whole other show. And you don’t doubt there will be other shows: an impressive newcomer now, Mahlunge looks as though he’ll be on the standup stage for keeps.
At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 27 August
