RATING: 3/5
BILAL Zafar is a soft-spoken and gentle comedian, and comes to the Edinburgh Fringe with his newest show Care, covering his time working at a care home after university.
He gets off to a bad start in this show with some hecklers right off the bat, but Bilal manages to keep things on track dealing with the interruptions expertly.
He has some great material, nothing delivered too high energy but good nonetheless.
He regales the audience with some hilariously well-told stories from his time in the care home – from an elderly man insisting on calling him Al, to escaped dementia patients trying to buy ciggies in the nearby off-licence.
Bilal is fun and friendly, keeping things light and making the audience feel like friends, and his soft-spoken demeaner only adds to the relaxed nature of his show.
Bilal highlights an impressively bizarre skill of his early on- wiggling his eyebrows really fast – and gleans some of his best stuff from this.
A silly comedian with good life stories to tell that provide a great bit of comedy, you might expect some challenging, even sad, material coming from stories centred in a care home, but Bilal manages to avoid any out-of-touch or distasteful jokes slipping in to his show.
Whether its him being a bit run down by a month at the Fringe or whether it’s just his style, Bilal could benefit from a bit of energy being injected into his show.
He maintains a relaxed demeanour with the audience, and is pretty laid-back and soft-spoken for a stand up comedian, perhaps resulting in a few lost laughs along the way.
Sometimes delivery can be what makes a joke funny, and Bilal’s delivery is just a little lacklustre.
Regardless of this he puts on a good show and is well worth seeing.
He has a cheeky wee giggle, laughs with the audience at his own jokes and finds it hilarious when people get up to leave, which adds a bit of an extra angle to his show.
A very personable and light comedian, Bilal Zafar is perhaps perfect for an early evening, “not out late tonight” kind of Fringe show.
To read more of Deadline News’ dedicated coverage of the Edinburgh Fringe click here.
