The rising star, Indian comedian Tarang Hardikar, is taking on his UK debut with his show If I’m Not Wrong. He delivers a fresh take on comedy through his distinctive form of storytelling, letting the audience step into his world and mind. This show serves as an introduction to Hardikar and what you can expect from him going forward: relatable humour and commentary on awkward social interactions.
Hardikar jumps from joke to joke, cleverly weaving them together through his bits about being easily distracted. He acts out his conversations with his therapist and with the officer at airport border control, constantly looping back to earlier moments to make sure the audience hasn’t lost the thread of the show. He is just as much a performer as he is a comedian. When acting out these interactions, the feel of the show shifts from a night of stand‑up to a full performance, as he delves into the characters he embodies and sets the scene beforehand, offering the audience different forms of entertainment.
What sets Hardikar apart from others is his relatable humour; he pokes more fun at himself than at anyone else. He connects with the audience through shared experiences of childhood whimsy like building forts at home and declaring them your “kingdom,” the struggles of making friends, and being tricked by your parents into thinking therapy is an art class. He is raw and candid, revealing a lot about himself so subtly that the audience becomes invested in him almost immediately. At the end, he reveals the “big news” that he is autistic and explains how he uses comedy as a tool to cope, telling us that everything he has been rambling about must “finally make sense” with this reveal.
While Hardikar is still settling into the rhythm of holding a crowd, his awkward charm quickly becomes part of the show’s appeal His performance comes full circle, beginning at the airport border‑control office and ending there, with a clever meta twist: the entire night becomes the joke he promised the officer who asked him to “tell me a joke.” It’s a fun, unmissable hour of comedy storytelling, and Hardikar will be bringing his next shows to the Edinburgh Fringe this August.
Review by Rim Alkaiat
Featured Image – Tarang Hardikar – photo credit The Habitat Mumbai
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