What do you do when your parents think they should send you for help due to your introversion? Become a professional impressionist, that’s what. One part autobiography to nine on how to sound like the stars, Mr Desai is a master of other people’s tics and quirks, making this the ultimate cabaret act.
His party trick to do fifty-two impressions within six minutes, the audience stopping him from breaking the five-minute mark due to their enjoyment of it all, not wanting him to stop. His best is the Tom Cruise “heh-heh-WOOO!” and his Clint Eastwood, which he taught a willing audience member to do (hint: pull back the mouth and narrow your eyes as much as you can). Desai’s message was that weirdness is cool; women found him attractive for doing the voices of famous people, but the kicker was that when intercourse commenced they wished it to be in the style of their favourite Hollywood star. Poor Anil, whose name is easy to remember by Anal Desire, yet still people persist on shouting “Hey Impressions Guy!” at him.
An hour with him is perhaps too long, as his act perhaps needs more structure and a shortening of the unnecessarily long part when he ironised the process of black voices all sounding the same to some people. Nonetheless talent is here in spades and he should be heard to be believed.
