The Omid Djalili Show

I first saw Omid at the Comedy Store about 4 years ago (well, I had already seen him in Gladiator and The Mummy but you know what I mean). I found his Middle Eastern character hilarious and was convinced that was just the way he was so I was genuinely shocked when he revealed himself to be a very well-spoken Anglo-Iranian. I thought it was all perfect comedy. That time. Surely the ranks of people who haven't seen this gag repeated on numerous occasions must be thinning out. Maybe this was by way of initiation to a new audience and he will introduce new stand-up material as the series goes on. We'll see. More wit and less self-deprecation might be a start.

As for the remainder of the show it consisted of low grade sketches. A predictably overweight and inept survivalist and a gay personal stylist for Osama are the only ones I can remember now. Alright, the Osama one made me laugh a bit.

The opinion on this show seems to generally come round to being along the lines that those who have seen Djalili several times will be left with material they have seen and weaker material while those coming to him for the first time will greet the show with a lukewarm reception. This is not only the opinion voiced on this site but also from "proper" reviewers and I am not going to be the one to disagree with them! I came to the show looking forward to Djalili's brand of humour being harnessed and used in creative ways within this sketch show. By this I do not mean specifically his jokes about his Iranian background but more his observational style and the way he can turn around clichés on his audience as easily as he does just mock himself at times.

Sadly the show exposes a two-tier product and I'm not sure why. On one level we have the stand-up material, some of which I am already familiar with despite having only seen him here and there before. This material is often funny and is the stuff that got him where is now is. He second tier is lesser material including sketches that trade on the "I'm a fat Iranian" thing without much in the way of imagination or wit. This second tier is disappointing as too much of it is just obvious and failed to do anything for me other than wonder if anything better was on somewhere else.

I forget what critic/magazine it was where I read the observation that Djalili's show was not ready for a prime time slot on a main channel as his first attempt but they were right. I'm no fan of BBC3, but he really should have been started here as much to protect himself as anything else. Perhaps here he could have worked with a few short series to build up experience and find out his strengths and weaknesses within the sketch show format. One would have hoped that that would have been done in the production anyway but too much has made through to convince me that this worked. Djalili himself seems unconvinced about some of it and you can see the difference at times; with strong material he is great and his delivery lifts it, however in some of his weaker sketches the opposite is true.

I didn't decide to stop watching the show but after an episode or two I found myself forgetting it when I was setting up the video recorder for the week and then it was gone totally from my head. Had it been stronger this would not have happened but as it is I do think that too much of it was lacking to make it a fixture in my viewing schedule. Djalili's better material and strong delivery does help it but there is just too much material that doesn't cut the mustard even if it is still quite amusing. Djalili can do better I'm sure, I just hope he gets the chance to do so.

The Omid Djalili Show I can only say is probably one of the funniest shows i've seen yet, and unlike the other reviewer despite having seen his stand-up before the sketch series', i can only say his creativity and hilarity factor has risen dramatically in the second series.

Omid takes multiculturalism and uses bizarre yet hilarious situations or characters and makes truly outrageous skits which tickle the funny bone for more reasons than slapstick. His use of music, dancing, as well as great one on one banter and impeccable joke telling as well as accents brings this show to one of my all time favorites in sketch comedy. While shows like Mind of Mencia waste our time with poorly crafted ethnic jokes and some awful dane-cook-wannabe presentation, the Omid Djalili show takes some elegant acting with the heart and spirit of true comedy which not only makes you laugh your pants off, but actually think. His observations and accents give the west London/east London feel and often bring to his audience a view of the middle east coupled with immigration in England, English mannerisms, Football frenzy and a great deal of energy, enthusiasm and passion.

The Omid Djalili Show caters to all audiences. For the adults who are too serious, he breaks down the barriers of often limiting political correctivity and gives the world a dose of the truth, from his sketch on British recycling (which is a short non-stop truth comedy sketch) to his stand up with the audience.

For those immature, he has steven 'the dragon' thompson and a "flamboyant" movie director, and for the rest he has some good sports humor, a little bit of belly dancing and some funny accent humor which is too funny and far too accurate to be offensive.

As such, this show is the new breed of sketch comedy, bringing in a little bit of everything to entertain both the heart and the mind. For those who complain of the lack of quality comedy in the world today, the omid djalili show is the true heir of the chappelle show, with a twist of brit wit and maturity.