Comedy Festival 2017: Comedy Zone Asia is living proof that the empire strikes back ★★★★

COMEDY Zone Asia lives up to its name and proves that the empire is striking back.

SO an international comedy festival that lives up to its name isn’t going to just feature the US, English, Irish, Scots and Canadians strutting their stand-up; it’ll also have the rest of the old pink bits on the map, the parts of the old English empire, that have buried the remnants of those old days, just like us.

Welcome to Comedy Zone Asia where comics from Malaysia, Singapore and India have the floor. You can’t help but wonder before MC Rizal Van Geyzel kicks things off how the gags will play out — what’s funny in Kuala Lumpur might not work in Melbourne. A joke in New Dehli might get lost across the kilometres.

Not at all. In truth, the show is delightfully affirming, that the things that bind us across this vast and disparate region are stronger than the divisions. And one of those strong bonds is comedy.

When Sumit Anand wanders on to the stage with his gentle and sly routine about his life in India, we all understand what he means when he talks about his mother’s relentless ambition for his son.

MC Rizal Van Geyzel opens the show and sets the tone for a funny night.

Neeti Palta raises eyebrows and laughter levels with her musings about buying condoms for her brother.

Jinx Yeo reflects on his Singaporean-Chinese heritage and identifies the perfect east-west fusion.

Sumit Anand muses about his mother’s ambitions for him as part of Comedy Zone Asia.

When Neeti Palta talks about trying to secure condoms for her brother, it doesn’t matter that it happens in an Indian pharmacy (although a young Indian woman making the request does come with a set of gags you probably won’t find in too many places). When Jinx Yeo reflects on his Singaporean-Chinese heritage he identifies the perfect east-west fusion — his bee-sting lips come from Angelina Jolie and the rest of him from the Dalai Lama.

It doesn’t all work, of course. It took Van Geyzel some time to settle but once he was in the groove, he was appropriately cheeky. You have to get in a little crack at the host country don’t you? Only right and proper.

And Palta’s material feels a little over-written, but it will loosen up over time. The show’s energy kicked up when Douglas Lim appeared, rattling through a range of jokes that was, in part, built on what struck him about his first trip to Melbourne — that he didn’t feel special because there were so many people here like him. “What are you doing? You guys have a China Town but let me tell you, China doesn’t have a Melbourne Town!’’ It was a nice touch.

This is warm-hearted and engaging comedy. There are some flat spots but they are few and far between. Best of all, this is funny in a knowing and universal way.

Melbourne Town Hall, until April 23

Buy tickets here