Reviewing comedy is proving to be increasingly hazardous, especially when the average critic inadvertently becomes the star of the show, and for the second time in a month, a negative critique is the starting point for a show taking place in Soho. Following Milo Edwards’ recent performance at the Boulevard Theatre, Urook Ashfaq brings her 60-minute set How to be a Baddie to Soho Theatre, where the critic who called her show ‘conservative’ is the starting point for proving him wrong, setting out to create a piece that is sexy, edgy and deals with sensitive topics.
Urooj warms up the audience with a bit of context, noting not to refer to her as Ashfaq in write-ups because that’s her stockbroker father, and joking that feedback for this India-based comic normally comes from ‘police complaints and YouTube comments,’ enjoying the freedom to be a woman talking in the UK. Reading excerpts from the disappointing review is an excellent way into material that focuses on three key topics to up the edge factor and recast reviews like this one – erotica, beating children and haemorrhoids – an unusual but effective way to that certainly tackles the risqué quotient directly to bring the particularly enjoyable mix of faux shock and laughter that Urooj is looking for.
And the three segments are built around extended anecdotes that offer personal insight into the performer’s life that helps to create rapport with the audience, some of whom feel brave enough to acknowledge their shared experiences. The best section focuses on erotica and particularly the experience of being a 16-year-old girl consuming these books for the first time with her parents’ unwitting blessing, because they’re just glad she’s reading and haven’t checked. This evolves surprisingly seamlessly into a hilariously confessional sequence about writing dark romance fan fiction about boyband One Direction, which Urooj shares with the group, along with a 60s cockney Harry Styles impression.
For the second extended story, Urooj takes the audience again back to her school days to satirise forms of childhood punishment where the Soho Theatre audience discover that PE teacher jokes are the same the world over, with gags about teenage girl sick notes and the aimlessness of the profession. A series of rolling jokes about being talkative and being moved around the class build to a nice pitch but the scenario peters out before its conclusion, making way for a final section on surgery for a personal complaint – a very British synonym for piles in this non-edgy review – that makes much of the digital exam, mixing Hindi with English to maximise the punchlines as medical students and anaesthetists get in on the action.
Unlike a lot of comedy shows, How to be a Baddie sets out a clear agenda from the start and sticks to it, using the original review as the spine of the show. And having set a higher bar for herself, Urooj can rest assured that with images of One Direction that you never thought would be in your head alongside the impression of an intimate physical exam, her show is definitely edgy and sexy, but unlike the surgeons, her teacher and the men of India, you won’t want her to stop talking.
Runs until 15 November 2025 and then continues to tour
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