Jamali Maddix @ Pleasance Courtyard
A debut from a comedian with a lot of potential, but who skims the surface of some deep waters
Jamali Maddix is a strong, loud and forceful comedic presence and his debut deals with the big issues of the day – race, politics, religion. Unfortunately, he ends up touching on each of these a touch too gently and the material, therefore, feels too thinly spread over the hour despite the pertinent things he has to say.
Maddix is intelligent, verbose and when discussing the audience’s white middle-class attitudes on race, his sharpness of mind comes to the fore. He has such a lot of good points too. What seemingly begins as a 'routine' piece goes from the N-word to race relations in Eastern Europe, and he touches on a lovely analogy between immigration and his own relationship with his girlfriend, but there always feels like there’s more there if only he’d dig a little bit deeper.
Jamali Maddix: Chickens Come Home to Roost, Pleasance Courtyard (Attic), 3-29 Aug (not 15), 8:15 pm, £6-10.