Paul Sinha: Looking at the Stars

Paul Sinha’s been a man with a message. Last year’s show, Extreme Anti-White Vitriol, focused on accusations made against him by the BNP. In September, Jim Davidson called him an ‘Indian poof’ and one of a collection of ‘jealous, socialists cunts’ on the internet. An easy win for a similar show title, but it seems Sinha doesn’t want to be pigeonholed. Everyone who knows of him knows instantly that’s he’s gay, Asian and used to be a doctor. It must be terribly frustrating for a man with undoubtable comic talent to be so defined by these attributes. I applaud him for taking a new direction.

However, it’s unclear what direction he has taken. His show this year has no discernable theme at all – the Oscar Wilde quote to which the title refers seems uncomfortably tacked on at the end. Sinha is very funny, very intelligent and seems genuinely confident about who he is, in all respects. He delivers a show that is funny and engaging and the audience are enjoying themselves. But it’s disjointed; it’s not quite a show yet.

Sinha may be having an off year but I still can’t shake off the feeling that he’s going through a necessary transition on his way to something more interesting still.