Ahir Shah arrived at Edinburgh with a work-in-progress but leaves as comedy champ
Brian Logan
Edinburgh festival fringe: Ahir Shah’s Ends wins best show at comedy awards
Ahir Shah: Ends review – superb show assails heartstrings and funny bone
Late-night clown-therapy act among nominees for Edinburgh comedy awards
November 2021
Ahir Shah: Dress review – laughs about life under lockdown
Coronavirus and woke capitalism lead to pleasing, if patchy, polemics in the comic’s latest show
October 2020
'It feels good to bring the virus down a peg or two': should comedians joke about Covid?
Some standups see it as their job to provide collective catharsis for the coronavirus, while others see pandemic gags as off-limits – even ones about Trump
August 2020
Gagging order: the jokes comedians would have told at Edinburgh
From Flo & Joan to Stephen K Amos, standups share the material they would have taken to the fringe this year
March 2020
Lockdown culture
Cancelled culture: at-home substitutes for major theatre, art and music events
The Observer’s critics offer creative alternatives to cancelled or postponed arts events
January 2020
2020 culture preview
Star debuts and happy returns: theatre, dance and comedy in 2020
Tom Stoppard gets personal, Cush Jumbo does Hamlet, Hollywood names bring everything from tragedy to comedy … plus dance confronts shame and there’s standup open heart surgery
December 2019
How to be hopeful
‘Optimists make everything good’: 16 writers and thinkers on what gives them hope in dark times
Here’s hoping for new languages, better technology, solutions to the climate crisis, Samantha Mumba’s new album, a sequel to Hamilton – and the resurrection of hope itself
August 2019
15 of the best Edinburgh festival shows now touring
Edinburgh fringe roundup: the sound of fighting talk
Edinburgh festival 2019: the shows we recommend
Ahir Shah: Dots review – humour and poetry in existential angst
July 2019
‘I love sex because it famously has no consequences’: meet the best new comics at the Fringe
Comedians' guide to Edinburgh: where to eat, drink, swim and snog
June 2019
Edinburgh festival 2019: 50 theatre, comedy and dance shows to see
There’s a Belle and Sebastian play, a show in a hair salon, Frances Barber performing Pet Shop Boys songs and top comics including Josie Long and Stephen Fry. Here’s our guide to the world’s biggest arts festival
May 2019
Shortcuts
I refuse to believe my name is too difficult for people to pronounce
Ahir Shah
A third of employees from minority ethnic backgrounds have been asked to change their name to something more ‘English’ – which just shows some people simply can’t be bothered to try
February 2019
My funny valentine: standups on their most disastrous dates
A night in a cemetery, a trip to a strip club, five hours in A&E … comics relive their woeful romantic rendezvous
December 2018
A new start
A new start: the moment Ahir Shah saw his father's face in the mirror
A few deaths in the family had already made the comedian feel older. Recognising his dad in himself took it a step further
