RATING: 3/5
RAJIV Karia makes a solid Edinburgh Fringe debut with his highly-anticipated show Galivant.
Creating a casual atmosphere from the get-go with some nice conversational humour, Rajiv ribs the audience a little and is helped along in this by a couple of latecomers.
Rajiv quickly pulls out his opening jokes, setting up a running Roman numerals bit, quipping that his name isn’t traditionally English and instead comes from ancient Rome, in that his true name is Raj IV.
The comic delivers the majority of his material with a dry wit, seemingly uncaring of whether you laugh or don’t, which adds to the relaxed and conversational atmosphere he seems to be striving for.
Rajiv’s show focuses on his wish to be a hedonist, which developed when he first learnt about the philosophy in school.
He discusses the feeling that he’s not doing what he wants to at this stage in his life, having wished that he could – like his dad – live in a different country and experience new cultures.
The theme of hedonism flows throughout the runtime as Rajiv expresses the different ways in which he’s tried to achieve this.
He openy mulls over his feeling of having lost the young, adventurous kid he once was, which comes full circle by the end of the show in a skit of a phone conversation with his dad.
Through this, a heartfelt message is delivered that Rajiv is in fact (in a roundabout way) still that same adventurous kid, and that maybe he doesn’t need to feel so lost.
There’s decent humour throughout, with lots of running jokes told through punchy delivery, and Rajiv truly does shine a light on self-discovery through his time on stage.
Its hard not to appreciate comedy with a genuine message behind it, and Rajiv did this well.
Leaving his show, it felt like almost everyone got his overarching message that everything will, eventually, be okay.
Whether you’ve already achieved the things you wanted or are on the way to doing so, Rajiv sheds light on our perceptions of ourselves and with the help of his dad, tells us to try looking at things just a little more positively.
In terms of raw content, it’s not the best Fringe show I’ve ever seen, but for an hour or so of purehearted comedy, it’s certainly worth a look.
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