Review: Mawaan Rizwan: Juice

Don’t be fooled by his oddly glum-looking picture in the Fringe programme: Mawaan Rizwan warms up for this solidly fabulous hour by busting some sweet moves to some solid grooves as the crowd take their seats, in an enviably glittery tracksuit. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if all tracksuits glittered? Sweaty gyms. Grim malls. Moody footballers filing off team coaches. He’s onto something here.

Actually Rizwan whips off that outfit during one of the epic dance numbers dotted across this show: he doesn’t need it. The YouTube star and BBC presenter boasts substance along with the flashy style, and has a strong tale to tell. He’s a gay Pakistan-born guy who helps his mother become a Bollywood star, his father become a radio personality, and still ends up in the shadow of his increasingly-famous brother. 

There are revelations galore here, and with the sparkly musical bits sprinkled throughout you could forgive him taking some breathers with the material: but Rizwan never lets up. There are canny callbacks and punchline-toppers and even the video clips often include interactive moments, so become clever virtual props. Nuff props indeed. 

The only brief sag is a bit where he rambles about animals, but that turns out to be a set-up for a good visual gag at the end. Even the final credit sequence is worth staying put for, and as the audience eventually file out you can sense that collective ‘blimey!’ Honestly, if Mawaan is the disappointment in the Rizwan family, the rest of them must be bloody amazing.