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If you came to Anisa Nandaula’s new show, No Small Talk, expecting to be safe from audience interaction, prepare to be surprised. Nandaula wants to get to know her audience – one by one, if necessary.
From the moment she bounds on stage, Nandaula’s energy is infectious. She is almost aggressively bubbly, her demeanour a counterpoint to the dryness she sees in the Australian sense of humour. She dances across the stage as she welcomes the first row, asking many of them individually for more and more details about their lives. She then moves on to the second row, and the third. She jokes that she’s going to work her way through the whole audience this way and it isn’t entirely a lie: at one point she even reaches an audience member at the very back of the venue, shielding her eyes against the lights as she talks about the difficulties of getting textured hair styled in Australia.
Nandaula weaves audience responses into her material with ease. When a man shares that he works in banking, she spirals off into a tangent about her previous life working in a major bank and the lies she had to tell during the interview process. When she asks if anyone has visited Kenya, she is delighted to discover a member of the front row has visited the same baby elephant sanctuary she travelled to, kickstarting a story about the potential bright side of poaching for those willing to think outside the box.
Nandaula’s experience as a first generation migrant (she moved from Uganda to Australia as a child) shines through in every element of the show, whether she’s discussing neighbourhood politics or family dynamics. Having spent part of her childhood in very white Rockhampton, Nandaula is no stranger to racism – but even when she turns to dark material, she never stops grinning. Racist ideology is “silly”, she says, joyfully poking holes in its flawed logic.
Crowd work has also become a mainstay of viral clips online and Nandaula has amassed a significant following across social platforms with her comedy. But while she has a strong background in performance, first as a slam poet and then on Brisbane’s standup circuit, there is something about her crowd work that feels very online, and not always in a good way. Something that might work clipped up on TikTok can come across awkwardly in front of a live audience.
For many, being targeted by a comedian is their worst nightmare. Good crowd work, though, can bring an audience in, making them a player in the show’s success. When done right, it can be just as joyful for the person bearing the brunt of it as it is for those observing from a safe distance. There are glimpses of those moments here, but ultimately Nandaula never quite achieves the level of audience buy-in she is striving for.
Her reliance on the audience is never mean-spirited or unkind, but it will still be a deterrent for many. If you’re brave enough to sit at the front, you’d better be ready to share.
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