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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Your Power, Your Control
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Your Power, Your Control

Nish Kumar

Prime Video · 2024 · 80 min

An angry, self-deprecating set sparked by a disastrous charity gig.

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Nish Kumar uses a disastrous, bread-roll-throwing charity gig to frame a highly personal hour about political despair, racist abuse, and his own mental health. At the center of the show is his infamous 2019 appearance at a Lord’s Taverners charity lunch, where a room of hostile guests booed him off the stage. Rather than just retelling the story for easy sympathy, Kumar uses the fallout, including the subsequent tabloid coverage and a barrage of online threats, to examine how Britain’s cultural landscape turned hostile to public figures of color. Filmed at London’s Soho Theatre, the set originally toured in 2022 before debuting on Sky Comedy and getting a wider global digital release in 2024. Kumar begins the evening with a high-energy, fifteen-minute barrage aimed squarely at the Conservative government, particularly targeting the myth of Rishi Sunak’s competence. From there, the material shifts into more vulnerable territory, mocking his own messianic fantasies of political martyrdom while confronting the realities of post-traumatic stress disorder. The show leans heavily on his signature style of shouting through the pain, contrasting his loud, theatrical onstage persona with the quieter, more complicated reality of coping with public hostility.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Being pelted with a bread roll at the 2019 Lord's Taverners charity lunch over anti-Brexit material.

    Splitting the story into the event and its harrowing aftermath—including death threats, media frenzy, and PTSD—while maintaining humor, self-mockery, and a defence of free speech.

  2. A countdown of his worst five gigs ever, including an Edinburgh Fringe show attended by Victoria Wood.

    Recalling the horror of performing in front of a visibly displeased national treasure and comedy icon.

  3. A diatribe on contemporary political scandals, Downing Street parties, and Boris Johnson.

    Delivering blistering political zingers that channel righteous indignation into topical humor bookending the show.

  4. Poking fun at the British national anthem.

    Employing extended repetition of a phrase or gesture to push the comedic tension in a manner reminiscent of Stewart Lee.

How it plays

Tone
Righteously angry, playful, defiant, personal, and self-mocking.
On stage
Commanding, self-knowing, self-mocking, and prone to bursts of random screaming, balancing tongue-in-cheek arrogance with silliness and sharp sarcasm.
Pace
Fast-paced set characterized by fizzing, unrelenting energy and breathlessness with moments of bathos.
About
The 2019 bread-roll incident and its fallout, Mental health and PTSD, Conservative politics and Downing Street controversies, Racism and right-wing backlash, Free speech, Worst gigs in career

What the critics said

Widely praised as an uproarious, fizzing, and masterfully crafted performance that successfully wove deep personal vulnerability and trauma around the bread-roll incident into sharp, unrelenting political satire.

In the room: A supportive, like-minded room of fans at Soho Theatre engaging with his playful yet vehement delivery.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: nishkumar.co.uk, tv.apple.com, hoopladigital.com, theguardian.com, independent.co.uk, chortle.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, comedy.co.uk.

Backstory

Personal and political fallout following a 2019 charity gig where he was pelted with a bread roll over anti-Brexit material, leading to severe online abuse, death threats, and PTSD; alongside the broader context of UK politics under the Conservative government.

Details

Released
Taped
2022, Soho Theatre, London
Runtime
80 min
Where
Prime Video
Director
Stuart Laws
Topics
Before
Comedians of the World (2019)
After
Nish, Don't Kill My Vibe (2026)

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