Where were you on the night Barack Obama was elected? Ava Vidal was on ITN, a self-confessed token black commentator on the historic event. "Whenever there's an issue that's deemed to be black," she says, "they round us up and give us a microphone."
Vidal's show is full of such perspectives: wry and jaundiced, but seldom amounting to funny. If only a little of Obama's oratorical prowess had rubbed off: her delivery is low-energy bordering on diffident, and she seems more interested in shooting the breeze with her audience than in entertaining them.
That's a shame, because many elements of a good comedy show are in place here. Vidal is thoughtful and engaged, and she has a story to tell. Obama's election has prompted reflections on what it means to be a black role model. She talks about her brush with the law for possession of cocaine, and about whether she is a good mother to her teenage daughter. She also weighs into the current debate about racism in comedy, with an injunction to white comics who black up as Zulus to try doing so in Africa.
This is all perfectly diverting, yet not remotely exciting. Half-formed thoughts are expressed on this and that without coalescing into insight. Some of her best jokes (including a neat line about inarticulate BNP members leaving the country) are sacrificed to an underpowered and offhand delivery – for which the closet-sized venue is only a partial excuse.
Vidal has cogent things to say about race, class and gender in comedy, and beyond. But if she doesn't express them more dynamically, too few people will listen.
