by ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Every year, at least since the pandemic, Pleasance Attic has played host to one of the most exciting new voices at the Fringe. Since 2022, they’ve included Celya AB, Lorna Rose Treen, and Abby Wambaugh. This year, it’s Shalaka Kurup who’s providing the must-see hour a few flights of stairs above Pleasance Courtyard.
Kurup is “living for the plot,” and while “brown woman in the UK” is a step up from how India treats and considers women, it’s simply not going to cut it. If the problem with young people, or people of most ages today, is that the Internet has afflicted them with an addiction to main character energy, then she wonders what will set her apart. A frequent participant in UK Roast Battles, her male competitors may strike her down as potentially autistic, but that only gives her hope for an even more significant or significantly unique diagnosis. Will she find what she’s seeking in therapy? Not exactly. And the personal and professional situations she finds herself in are amusing, weird or graphic enough to produce ample fodder for stand-up comedy.
But Kurup didn’t need anyone to tell her that she had a mental disorder or that they had special needs for her to realize what makes her special. And it’s not even her PhD in trains.
Because as a stand-up, she’s so whip-smart, with such a strong point of view, so many gags of varying degrees of brow and even more voices to set them to, that keeps the hour moving quickly, furiously. Kurup reminds us that protagonists don’t have to be likable, just interesting. She, of course, has both in spades. With a much more satisfying conclusion than the Fast and the Furious franchise.
I cannot wait for the next installment. I hope her plot includes moving to America.
Shalaka Kurup: Get A Grip plays Pleasance Attic through Aug. 25, 2025.
