Anil Desai promises to deliver 52 impressions in 52 minutes and does just that. In a one man show, he asks the audience to suggest situations for the list of celebrities he is going to impersonate – thus improvising their dialogue too. On top of this, the celebrities are chosen in a random order from a labelled deck of cards shuffled by an audience member. Anil himself is friendly, vibrant and copes well with the small and slightly reticent crowd.
Some of his impressions are excellent- both spot on in vocal delivery and in body language; the likes of Christopher Walken, Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson and Jim Carrey being particularly successful. Unfortunately others are less so. Anil’s decision to be forced to improvise dialogue with his characters leads to often unsure delivery and tedious discussions (as the various celebrities). This scatter gun effect is slightly off putting and causes it to have a stop and start effect with too much time given to scenes at the beginning and then quick delivery of impressions at the end in order to fulfil his numeracy promise. There are comedy moments caused by the character combinations but often only for brief fleetingly frustrating moments. The show would’ve been better served by Anil simply talking to the audience (he is at his most amusing during these periods) and then delivering well practised impressions for a much slicker and engaging show. Worth checking out if you’re a die hard impressions fan otherwise stick to watching the real thing.
2/5 
Catriona Ruth Paterson
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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