The ‘King of Similes’ Andy Zatlzman performed in Mumbai last night i.e 4th October at the Canvas Laugh Factory. My colleague and I were sitting in the first row to his right. Yes, rookie mistake to be sitting in the first row for a stand-up comedy act. However, Zaltzman never picked on the audience. He was quite nice in that sense. Unfortunately, his anchor, who opened the act, Atul Khatri wasn’t as kind. He was entertaining and set the stage up beautifully by making the front row feel at ease. He thus found out, quite a few people sitting in the first row worked for cricket websites. That wasn’t shocking considering the show was named, ‘Cricket v/s the World.’

With the British accent to add panache to his jokes, Zaltzman was a riot. Everything from the American shutdown to tracer bullets from Ravi Shastri, from Sachin's anticlimactic hundredth 100 to Srinivasan and democracy was his meat. As he kept suggesting that sport provides an escape from the disasters of the world, it was clear that he turns to cricket to make fun of the world. Some of his rather long similes fell apart, but he covered up by making fun of himself, which is an endearing quality in a standup comic. Listening to Andy Zaltzman describe how he learnt to deliver a baby by watching cricket, almost…just almost makes you believe cricket can teach you anything. 

The theme of his show was an important question. In the event of an apocalypse, which would you miss most, cricket or the world? Tough one. But before the apocalypse, definitely catch the show. 

Rating – 7.5/10