Vineeta Rao
Auckland, May 2, 2025
Edinburgh-born comedian Ahir Shah, in Auckland to perform at the New Zealand Comedy Festival that spans between May 2 and May 28, 2025, has been hailed as ‘one of the most eloquent voices of his generation.’
If his name sounds familiar, it is probably because you have seen him on British panel shows like Mock The Week or The Mash Report. He has also performed on Live at the Apollo.
In 2023, his act Ends won The Best Comedy Act and is now a special on Netflix. From modern marriage to global politics, Ahir delivers stand-up that makes you laugh, think and question the unexpected profundity of beans. Indian Newslink caught up with Ahir to find out the latest status quo on his rivalry with the Sunaks.
INL: Tell us a bit about your award-winning show Ends. How did it come about?
Ahir: Just before I got married, I have been married for 18 months now – I was thinking about what I wanted the next show to be about. I think that whenever you are in one of those transformational, transitional stages of your life, you start introspecting. Who am I? Who do I want to be? You start looking for examples or models within your family, you know. For instance, I was going to be a husband. So, who did I know who has been married a long time and has a solid marriage? And I immediately realised that the longest marriage of anyone that I knew closely was that between my mother’s parents.
My maternal grandmother (Nani) was still with us. My maternal grandfather passed away in 2002. I was the same age as him when he first moved to the United Kingdom (UK) in 1964.
But unlike me, he had already been married for nearly a decade and had three children. So I started to think about what these milestones meant in different contexts. I mean, things have changed over the last 60 years.
While all this introspection was happening, Rishi Sunak became the Prime Minister of the UK without an election. Sixty years ago, this would have been inconceivable. So yes, that is what sparked this – 60 years of family history but it is sort of like the history of the world over the last few decades.
Q: You seem to have found your comedic voice very early in your career – your ethnicity, your family life, your life as a migrant – is that correct?
Ahir: Actually, I would not say so necessarily. But yes, in this show [Ends], certainly. In this show, I wanted to talk about these topics because they were relevant to me at the moment.
We are still individuals in our own right but there are aspects of you that are informed by these issues, although not necessarily defined by them. Broadly speaking, they have been a sort of running theme through the show, I am trying to ensure that it is not just a one or two-dimensional picture but a more holistic one.
Q: You said your standup talks about your family and that you are now newly married, do your in-laws also walk on eggshells around you?
Ahir: I hope not! Seriously though, as mentioned in my show, my wife is from Ireland and I was lucky enough to be there on tour earlier this year. I had never performed in Ireland before and did the first show I have ever done in Dublin, back in January. So my wife and I went over for that and it was very nice having extended family, most of whom were seeing me for the first time. You can not imagine how nervous I was!
Q: Ireland has some extremely funny standup acts. You also work with some of them. Are you still the family favourite for your in-laws?
Ahir: Yeah, I mean that is the dream. But to be honest, they probably prefer Dylan Moran or someone like that [laughs again]!
Q: I think your act in particular appeals to a lot of migrants because we can relate to it. What started you on your comedic journey?
Ahir: Basically, I enjoyed watching comedy on television, and when I was a teenager, my dad suggested that I try it.
I always think that comedians are united by ends rather than means. What we want is to make the audience laugh. And therefore you’re building something out of jokes. But the mechanism by which you do it can be astonishingly rich and varied. So you have people who do it with snappy one-liners or storytellers who take you on longer journeys and tie it all up at the end with the punch line. There’s a wonderful freedom that is wholly up to you as a consequence. And I think that is what appeals to me.
I want to tell these stories but I do not have the patience to be a novelist. I do not have the ability to be a musician but seemingly what I can do is build things out of jokes to get across the stories that are important to me.
Q: Who is your favourite comic?
Ahir: I think that the comic who sort of changed my perspective the most on what it could be was Daniel Kitson. Or is Daniel Kitson? I mean he is not dead! I remember the first time I watched him and realised how he had crafted his piece. I mean he seriously and critically engages with love, whether romantic or parental or whatever, but did it through jokes. I thought that was an incredibly cool thing to do. Brilliant.
It is a bit awkward to say this because I know him now but it is true.
But the thing I think that started my interest in comedy was that when I was seven years old and my entire family got together in my grandparent’s house and watched episode one of a BBC sketch show called Goodness Gracious Me. They took cliches and stereotypes and sort of ran with them to the point of ridiculousness. And that had a huge impact on me because I did not know until then how funny it could be.
As an adult, it stuns me. Because Sanjiv [Bhasker], Mira [Sayal] and Nina [Govind] were pioneers in that space for us. They didn’t necessarily have anyone before them to show us how it was done. They did that for me and my generation.
Q: I know that you have spoken about cliches and stereotypes and changing perspectives. But audiences are also changing. Given the recent events in the world of comedy, from Chris Rock being assaulted by Will Smith to Kunal Kamra’s recent conflict with the Maharashtra government, do you think audiences are getting more thin-skinned?
Ahir: Well, I have just come from a bit of time in India so I feel like I can talk about that.
The most fundamental thing, I think, is that in the United Kingdom or in Australia, where I currently live, and perhaps New Zealand too, although I have never really been here, is that we massively take for granted our freedom of speech.
I mean, what is more natural than speaking? It is a very human thing. We should be able to take it for granted, right? If people are gathered together and talking, they are giving you their opinion and that should be okay, right?
But over the last few years, I have become acquainted with colleagues at festivals or when I visit India, and I have found that you actually cannot take this freedom of speech for granted. People will often say to standup comedians ‘Oh that is a very brave thing to do.’ And I do not think it should have to be brave. For instance, being a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom does not feel like a particularly brave thing to do but in India it is.
Most people are afraid of public speaking, to begin with, and you tend not to stand up if you are the sort of person who is afraid of public speaking. But now, there are situations when venues can get ransacked or people will come and send these death threats and stuff. And I think in that sort of situation, being a stand-up comedian is a tremendously brave thing to do.
It is also a reminder to everyone that we often take these things for granted. It is the cornerstone of a liberal society.
Q: There is a point of view that believes standup comedians are now taking on the role played by the press, commenting with brutal honesty on politics, religion, foreign relations, ideologies, healthcare, etc. Do you think this is true?
Ahir: Not at all. I mean that is a very grandiose thing to think! And it allows the state to abnegate responsibility for what should be to comedians!
Q: But what about people like Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert or even John Oliver? Or even Mock the Week, which you are part of.
Ahir: They are using jokes as a delivery mechanism for the idea that they want to fundamentally deliver. Yes, they are talking about the news but that is not the point of their delivery. It is just the medium for delivering a joke.
You cannot put that responsibility on us. I love watching a standup like Milton Jones who does silly, surreal one-liners. I do not want to tell him ‘Hey Milton, your job now is to use your one liners to discuss this latest political situation.’ That is not going to work.
I am going to answer your question using a quote from when Jon Stewart was on Crossfire [CNN] in 2004. When he was asked a similar question, he said “You are on CNN. The show leading up to us [The Daily Show] is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?” And that sums it up. We just don’t want that responsibility.
Q: Noted. Moving on to India’s teeming standup comedy scene, is that someone you particularly like? Someone you would like to single out and ask us to go and watch?
Ahir: The thing is, all the comedians from India, that I know, are doing so much better than I am! I need them to – I am not going to say ‘Oh go watch Kanan Gill or Biswa!” They can tell people to watch me, alright! They are doing okay!
Q: What about New Zealand Comics? Is there anybody in particular you follow?
Ahir: Well I do know some Kiwi comics from their having lived in London or those I have met in Melbourne in the past. But I’ve never been to New Zealand before so I am really looking forward to seeing them on home turf.
Q: Are there any particular upcoming projects you would like to talk about?
Ahir: Well, beyond doing the New Zealand Comedy Festival in May, my show Ends has pretty much dominated my life for the last couple of years. So when I get back from New Zealand, I have one big show in London that finishes it off and then I guess, I will be thinking about what comes next. That is the terror and fun of this job!
Ahir will be performing his show Ends on Friday 2nd May at Wellington and on Saturday 3rd May in Auckland as part of the New Zealand Comedy Festival. For more information or to book tickets, please check this link https://www.comedyfestival.co.nz/find-a-show/ahir-shah/
Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Auckland.
