Pakistani Brit comic Shazia Mirza performed at the Mocha hookah bar in Juhu last night. She was much funnier and livelier than when I last saw her. In New York she showed up in a black hijab, did a very brief set of terrorism jokes and was extremely deadpan in a way that Americans didn’t appreciate. It was a purely post-9/11 show, and she didn’t let much personality show.

But in Bombay, Mirza was uproarious in full storytelling swing. She seemed nervous about her first trip to India, referred to her set outline and lost her place a bit, but overall she was fabulous. The place was jam-packed with fans. Mirza’s sharp, filthy humor scored big points with the women there, though I noticed some uncles and aunties leaving at the first mention of ‘anal.’

The Indian crowd ate up her story about meeting the Queen:

The entire Buckingham Palace staff is gay. They served orange juice, champagne and poppers. You don’t know what poppers are? It’s amyl nitrate. It’s used to relax before sex… Ask your husband…

So Prince William and started competing to tell the most racist joke. He won, of course.

Mirza was sponsored by the British Council, the same folks who sponsored the D’Archetypes. It’s a neat trick: taking raw material from the subcontinent and re-exporting the finished product back to the motherland

Naseeruddin Shah showed up looking sleepy in a purple shirt and curly white fro.

Related post: Burqa provocateur (updated)