Omid Djalili LIVE!

I know its shouty to use capitals and when you read this I hope that the Live really jumps out at you because it was the man himself, live! Omid Djalili is such a star that as an audience you really do feel as though you have seen him somewhere before on tv or film and suddenly there he is in front of you Live and live is the name of his show.

Before we even got to Omid though we had his friend and multi talented warm up act Boothby Graffoe who is also known for his surreal song titles such as, "Giraffes Don't Play Harmonicas, So It Can't Be a Giraffe". His song “Lullaby” was anything but, although I can’t spoil the joke here, you really have to hear it. He made good-natured jokes about the Dales setting and how many sheep there were and talked entertainingly about psychics, which he played out to great effect by showing how easy it was to guess things about his audience.

After an interval it was on to the main event and Omid took to the stage in the Marquee with a confident swagger and his larger than life persona owning us as an audience from the first. He was witty, genuinely thoughtful and clever and of course humorous with it which is an exceptional talent to have. Making his audience think by laughing with and at him he navigated through racism, disability, Saville and God without pause, tackling all the subjects which we daren’t normally raise in polite conversation with gusto.

It was a masterclass in comedy and all credit to the Festival organisers for putting on a show which came close to the bone on occasion in such a beautiful rural setting. Unexpected, thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining.

Ali Richards