Rowdy Kumar Live reviewed – a sometimes provocative night of laughs

FOR three nights this weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) Singaporean comedian Kumar went through his decidedly ‘rowdy’ routine at Zepp KL in Bukit Bintang.

He’s just come from doing shows in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. He will be touring other cities in Asia and Australia soon.

The flamboyantly gay entertainer threw in a couple of dance numbers in between a stream of jokes on sex, race, Singapore vs Malaysia, growing up gay, with a smidge of politics.

There’s also a bit about the distinction between ‘rowdy’ and ‘gangster’ and how that relates to Singaporeans and Malaysians that kind of makes sense.

Dressed in a couple of appropriately sparkling outfits, the loud and proud Kumar went through a routine that really didn’t have much in the way of surprises as you can tell by the list of topics above.

There’s also not much when it comes to extended storytelling with the jokes coming at a steady clip.

Whenever the familiar topics are filtered through a gay perspective you can feel a bit of charge in the room as there are some taboos touched on.

The bit about joining the Singaporean Army as part of National Service and getting special treatment for being gay was both informative and funny. How everything in Singapore is so regulated – even the criminals need to get a permit to beat people up.

Most of the time Kumar skates by being outrageous and not necessarily clever. The latter half of the show deals a lot with sex, though never in any graphic detail like you would see in a raunchy Western comedian’s set.

There are jokes that made the crowd ooohhh and aaahhhh that are on the provocative side, but they are not particularly deep.

The opening dance number comes with a fairly clever song explaining who Kumar is to newcomers, with a list of clubs he’s performed at, a reminder of the thriving night scene – at least from before Covid times.

The second dance number when he returns from an overlong intermission was an auto-tuned rendition of ‘I Will Survive’, which is really as cliched as you can get.

Ultimately, while there were laughs to be had, there was nothing too surprising, just how it’s said. There’s something brazen and free about how an openly gay man like Kumar tells his life story.

There’s actual life experience behind the jokes. Just wish there was more deeper storytelling or something new and different, instead of shock value. – The Vibes, October 17, 2022