Written and performed by: Omar Ibrahim
With the union jack bunting of the coronation still clinging to many a public edifice, the spectre of colonisation looms especially large at the moment. Whilst there have been protests and conversations about the dissolution of the monarchy, the lived cultural legacy of colonisation is something altogether more complex, something woven into the lives of the people whose countries were colonised. In his show Decolonise This, stand-up comedian Omar Ibrahim lays bare the experience of living with the heritage of colonisation with a refreshing irreverence, showing the catharsis of delving into the absurdity of it all.
Ibrahim presents himself as a cheeky outsider, a mixed race, neurodivergent, heteroflexible psychedelic dabbler. Tales of his experiments with drugs and alternative lifestyles are interwoven with threads of his Pakistani father’s Islamic faith and the ever-present undercurrent of racism in his home town of Colchester and beyond. The quest for identity as someone from a minority background who doesn’t feel fully accepted by his own people is not easy, but with a self-effacing charm, Ibrahim’s coping mechanism is to find the humour in the contradictions this viewpoint affords him.
The stupidity of the racism he has faced is characterised by the confusion of the racists themselves. He lists the different names he has been called, demonstrating by their ridiculous wide range, a blanket othering that whilst deplorable makes for ripe comedic material. As he points out though, this lack of cultural understanding can also come from those who proclaim themselves anti-racists. Well-intentioned white allies – or as Ibrahim calls them, “Wallies” – can be guilty of objectifying the people they think they are trying to protect, misreading cultural exchange as cultural misappropriation, telling him to “go back to Pakistan” not because they don’t want him here but because he simply must sample the treasures of his motherland.
The question of how to be an anti-racist is something that is being examined more and more, and Ibrahim illustrates some of the more annoying ways not to do it. He artfully skewers the kind of performative, self-serving anti-racism exhibited by certain members of the white, left-wing middle class, savouring how close to the bone that skewering is, here at the Brighton Fringe with its majority white middle class audience. It’s perhaps not always comfortable for everyone, which is kind of the point. The cultural conversation is a nuanced one, and whilst it can feel like we’re entering taboo-poking territory, Ibrahim’s delivery is playful and the audience is on his side, laughing throughout. He is eminently likeable and has clear comic flair, which especially shines in some of the more improvised, clown-like parts of the routine.
Towards the end of the set, Ibrahim jokes that after seeing his show we can now all go home and say we know one more brown person, and though this is obviously a slight dig, it carries some weight. Because the best way to become an anti-racist is to listen and learn from the experiences of the people affected. And if those experiences come in the form of a well-crafted, madcap stand-up comedy set, then all the better.
Reviewed on 14 May 2023
