A clever, brilliant, and radical comedian who may yet bring about the revolution.
Can art change the world? This is the weighty topic at the heart of Kate Cheka’s debut hour, one that wowed Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 and has lost none of its relevance and refreshing political directness.
You don’t see many left wing stand-ups these days – not to be confused with liberal, vaguely “progressive” comedians, whose anti-establishment credentials were so amusingly defenestrated during the Jeremy Corbyn era.
With neoliberalism and austerity rolling forever on, Cheka is a proud socialist, one whose talk of guillotines, billionaires, and their hoped-for intersection make the white liberals in the audience decidedly uneasy.
It’s a shame they feel this way, as our comedian couldn’t be nicer in speaking truth to power. She’s so genuine and dedicated to punching up in all the best, friendliest, and whiplashingly direct ways. She invites us into her metaphysical circle like it’s the most natural thing in the world, as though we’re in the corner of the coolest bar in Berlin and our friend is at the table with us, setting the world to rights.
Her upbringing – with a white, militantly feminist mother; learning of her faraway, black father, a retired Tanzanian politician – is beautifully told here, and Cheka’s effortless, extremely meandering rivers of material veer between the personal and the political (there are also ox bow lakes of dating, sex, and bisexual societal mores). Even when a segue is clunky, she draws attention to it, embracing the absurdity of it all.
All the best targets are hit: North London white boys called DJ Mango; Bob Geldof, Comic Relief, and the whole industry of White Saviourism; right-on male feminists who can’t handle a bit of muff. We’re also presented with incredibly funny jokes about Meghan Markle, problematic Israeli lovers, and wealthy submariners which absolutely do not get the reception they deserve.
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on Cheka, she’ll throw a brilliant curve-ball, like her not-exactly-Brighton-friendly take on environmentalism; she also has important, room-silencing points about sexual predators within stand-up, and the mysterious difficulty an award-winning, anti-colonialist, black, socialist comedian has in acquiring an agent.
Back, then, to the world changing or otherwise. There is some musing here about whether she could be using her undeniable talent and ambition in a field more impactful than stand-up, especially given the industry’s resistance to anyone to the left of, say, Matt Forde.
But with such a solid and satisfying first hour behind her, and with wit, frankness, and a brain the size of a planet, here’s hoping that Cheka stays the course. She could do absolutely anything next, and it will be exciting, entertaining, and maybe even world-changing to find out what that might be.
Reviewed on 28th May
