Part of Sameena Zehra has had an interesting life and she tells a string of attention-grabbing anecdotes from her life in her successful show, Tea With Terrorists, presented in
It’s quite a challenge to make terrorism amusing but this is achieved by focusing on the terrorists' incompetence, not on their ruthlessness, by dismissing some hairy life-threatening moments with humour and insouciance, and giving the 'Granny from Hell' a central part in the narrative. Sameena’s Kashmir Granny fears no one and stands up to mugging with an iron resolve and a great range of curses that would put anyone off their dastardly deeds.
Perhaps lacking in some spontaneity, the monologue flowed through the hour in a polished, well-practiced manner, from story to story and location to location. She ably re-creates life in
I admire her nerve and her skill at making amusing stories out of scary events. It’s not just about terrorists, though, it’s as much about growing up, family life and oddly about the perfect murder. Surely telling an audience about how you would kill someone makes it imperfect?
The show was watched throughout by a very patient Psycho Panda, who has only featured in a couple of reviews so far in the history of Tea With Terrorists. This may well be his third, and it’s a deservedly positive one because his contribution is vital.
I can recommend Tea With Terrorists, but would suggest that Sameena cuts out all of the non-contextual swearing. It doesn’t make this funny show any funnier.