Going Downhill by Neville Shah

I never knew Neville Shah as a comedian. I only knew him as the guy who sometimes sits in on the SnG Big Question podcasts, and more recently, one fourth of the 'The Internet Said So' podcasts on Varun thakur's YouTube channel.

I never really thought he was a very funny guy, nor did I feel inclined to watch his specials. But man oh man, how wrong was I.

This special is something that I have failed to witness in Indian comics. There are hundreds of comics, good and bad, with tens of different performing style, but there's none like Neville Shah. He talks about things that happened in his life that are dark, depressing, and dull. Things that people don't want to talk about, and things that make them uncomfortable to discuss. But Neville does it with finesse, and manages to get a lot of laughs out of it too.

The style of some of the dark jokes was very Louis CK-ish, which is high praise. There are not a lot of comics out there in India who go for a dark theme of comedy, because our people run away from their problems, or subjects that involves getting out of the comfort zone. That is the reason why I really loved this special more than anything else that I've watched in the last year. It was funny, insightful, dark, and thought provoking. Neville touched on topics that were very personal to him, and made sure that nobody ever felt uncomfortable laughing at his misery.

Kudos to Neville, and - 1 to me for ever doubting this man. I give him 9 here because there were a few parts where he could have gone for better one liners, but overall it was really funny, and deserves a 9.