Asians do this and Brits do that. That’s the territory of Malaysian comic Nigel Ng’s maiden hour, which made waves on the Edinburgh fringe in 2019. You can see why: Ng’s smooth and confident crosscultural comedy easily sustains for an hour and has primetime written all over it. It is also overfamiliar and not very adventurous – but Ng’s audience will likely be chuckling too much to mind that.
The formula is established early, as our host itemises some quirk of British behaviour, then imagines an east Asian parallel. (“Can you imagine if we did that?!”) Ng, who has lived in the US, brings an American style to his standup: he is slick, smiling and unstinting on gags, which address spicy Asian food, drinkable European tap water and the alarming spectacle of white women on prosecco. Stereotypes are held close, as he discusses the British obsession with weather and imagines himself a “tiger parent” coaching his stripper daughter – queasily enough.
That is not the only graceless note struck in Culture Shocked, and occasionally – as with the routine about Asian-style child discipline – the cliches grate. But Ng usually has a new angle on these well-worn subjects, as with the airport security skit that finds him flaunting a neck pillow to prove he’s no down-at-heel refugee. The weak material – on Malaysian Airlines, say – is eclipsed by the strong, such as the adroit gags about Asian v British treatment of dogs, and Asian v British attitudes towards food allergies.
He’s good with the crowd, too, soliciting backup from fellow east Asians as he cracks wise about hole-in-the-floor toilets and how not to cook rice. No distinctive worldview emerges, but Ng delivers a swaggeringly efficient hour of culture-clash standup.
• At Soho theatre, London, until 8 February, and on 19 February.
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