You might feel as though you’ve not seen Gina Yashere for a while. That’s because the British comic — who was a finalist in the Hackney Empire New Act competition back in 1996, then did stints working with Lenny Henry and on solo shows — has largely been in America since 2007. She’s reached significant acclaim there, appearing on The Tonight Show and touring the Far East with the likes of Emo Philips.
The trouble is, her comedic style still so often feels like it’s from back before she left the UK. There’s a ladette vibe to her new Laugh Riot tour: she dwells on how a penis is like “a retarded worm” and her viewpoints are rarely more imaginative when she covers other topics, from her obsessive hygiene to old people having sex.
What she certainly is good at is pouring enough energy into her set to cover the cracks in her material. As she talks about her international travels, a highlight is her description of Australians as “lazy racists”, which she backs up with excellent impressions of an Aussie customs official and an anecdote about the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Sydney, where the staff have dubious notions of what being Chinese means.
Yashere is bold in tackling race head-on, taking black members of the audience to task for being late and white women for having weak bladders (the well-refreshed Saturday-night crowd didn’t make for the easiest gig).
However, her brash charm wore thin during this homecoming. We’ve seen the topic of being repeatedly stopped at airport customs done often and so much more skilfully than this. And the material on Osama bin Laden and Isis hardly pushed beyond well-aimed basics. Yashere has spoken before about her in-your-face style and how well it fits in America. I’m not sure it excels as fully here.
Touring to April 11 (ginayashere.com)