Rayen Panday has in his new performance Focus takes little time to get going. He is therefore a very skilled stand-up comedian, one with a sympathetic, harmless appearance, in whom a rude joke involving the children of Ruinerwold simply has a soft landing.
His entertaining stories dangle loosely on a few not very exciting brackets. That no one wants to be the exception, but everyone wants to be the outstanding exception. That in his head he is often the hero, but in reality never really. Did he stray from where while making his show? Focus about when he came up with that title, or is that intended irony that isn’t really over the top? In any case, today’s short span of tension does not seem to be a major issue, but an afterthought.
“I’m a pleaser,” Panday says halfway through, but he tries not to move in the most pleasing direction when he taps into the ‘everything is so black and white these days’ cliché and discusses his background – Panday was born in Zaandam, as child of Surinamese-Hindustani parents.
His point: do you want to hear a story that “works,” or the (inconvenient) truth? He prefers the latter. Differences, including cultural differences, should be named rather than ignored or smoothed over. That’s what he does, in anecdotes about dating a white woman or a woman of color, or getting a haircut by a Turkish hairdresser or a Dutch one.
Rayen Panday jokes about comedians without great musical talent who almost dutifully incorporate a piano number into their performance. Also indekspot perhaps, because his own musical intermezzos mainly emphasize what he is much better at. When he starts to elaborate on a family quarrel, he effortlessly commands undivided attention again.
Focus
Cabaret
By Rayen Panday
6/5, Diligentia, The Hague. Tour up to and including 2/6.