Event 28, 16 June 2011

Iranian-born comedian Shappi Khorsandi filled the Ceres Hall to the extent of its licence on Thursday night for her gig under the umbrella of Devizes Festival.

It is a mighty coup for the festival organisers to attract Ms Khorsandi as her star is very much on the rise after a string of successful TV appearances.

Despite being in her mid-30s, a single parent about to become a divorcee (so she told us), she has a charming freshness and vitality, which certainly charmed the audience in the Ceres Hall.

She began with some by-play with the audience and I'm sure vet Ian Macqueen didn't foresee becoming part of the act when he sponsored the event and secured tickets on the front row.

Ms Khorsandi said she had received some charming "tweets" on Twitter, the only negative one being a girl who said: "We all know you're Iranian. Why do you keep going on about it?"

Although Ms Khorsandi dismissed the question, it is a valid point and at some moments during her two hours on stage I felt as if we were seeing the comedian as victim.

She told the story about, when she was four, her mother was verbally abused by a Mohican-wearing youth on the Tube.

When the boy had got off, an elderly woman leant over to her and said: "Don't worry about that kind of person, my dear. You can't help being a Paki."

Well, it got a laugh but I think she is better than that.

She also spent quite a long time taking the mickey out of a book called The British Citizenship Test for Dummies.

Does she not realise the For Dummies series is a parody of self-help books?

In fact, although the audience laughed like drains throughout the show, the biggest laughs came from her dynamic delivery, her needle-sharp comic timing and her wonderful facial expressions.

It all left me feeling that here is a phenomenal talent desperately in need of some decent material.

Lewis Cowen