Review: Mamoun Elagab: Why I Love White People

Mamoun Elagab is a witty, charming young Londoner with an incredible life story and bags of potential. In his debut hour he sets about telling us how he benefited from spending time with people from other cultures but the heart of what should be a much more involving journey feels frustratingly out of reach.

His grandfather moved to the UK from Sierra Leone in the 1950s and got a place at University College London but dropped out to become a baker. His grandmother hailed from Sri Lanka. Elagab’s dad, who’s part Turkish and part Sudanese, got a PhD in the 1980s and his mother wanted to be a comedian but became a barrister instead.

The family experienced a tragedy when Elagab was very young, and another a few years later. One is left desperate to know more – how everyone reacted and coped, how he felt, and how he tried to make sense of it all – but what he shares feels more like crumbs of information sprinkled at random intervals to work round the jokes.

He touches upon the fact that some of his friends joined gangs, and the affection he has for his Muslim friends and acquaintances, and he has some lovely bits about his nerdy instincts in an urban context. But, again, this material deserves further development and more space to breathe.

There’s a strong show in here: all it needs is some judicious restructuring, and for Elagab to be in less of a rush and more open to showing us the real him. We’ll wait.