Ayesha Hazarika: State of the Nation review

Former Labour Party advisor Ayesha Hazarika is someone you would probably expect to see on the sofa of Good Morning Britain rather than at a stand-up comedy gig in which she is the starring act. It may seem a bit of an odd change of career, but, as Hazarika herself points out, twenty years in politics gives her a lot of material. What results is Hazarika showing off her comedic chops with insightful political commentary to create a memorable evening for political nerds and comedy fans alike.

Hazarika shines in describing the odd world of Labour HQ

She has not completely left politics behind her, as evidenced by the 10-minute Q&A at the end of the show, which she says gives her a chance to hear what’s on the mind of her audience. And the jokes, it must be said, are a touch forced, though with that self-aware charm as when your friend makes a deliberately bad pun (“Corb-free diet”). The success of Ayesha Hazarika, however, is in her ability to craft thoroughly amusing and human sketches of her time in the Labour Party. While Hazarika includes observational comedy about her family and background – for instance, her brother’s white in-laws coming to her family’s Indian Christmas dinner and complaining about the British having to be hospitable to immigrants – or political satire – comparing Brexit to a poo and remarking that Theresa May would rather treat the public like potatoes, ‘in the dark or antagonising the Irish’ – she shines in describing the odd world of Labour HQ.

The portraits she creates are just as intimate as those most comedians paint of their family and friends. There lies Hazarika’s real strength: for her, the political is personal. This separates her from other political comedians like Matt Forde or John Oliver who comment more on someone’s image than on the actual person. The standout moments are an anecdote describing Harriet Harman texting Hazarika who is right next to her just because everyone else in the room is texting, and Ed Balls arriving on the pink bus with cupcakes during the 2015 general election. These stories also give Hazarika the chance to show off her impressions of Miliband, Theresa May, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood, Natalie Bennett and Gordon Brown.

There lies Hazarika’s real strength: for her, the political is personal

Even better, Hazarika is able to take us behind the scenes of the Labour Party to a world most of us will never know: the world of advisors, debate camps, strategy meetings and office kitchens. Here lies the main thesis of Hazarika’s act: the lack of diversity at the top of the Party is costing the politicians who try to enforce it. She constantly refers back to the “Room”, where no woman sits and most of the major political decisions are made, whose occupiers all attended the same schools and universities, who live in London and all, it seems, are called Tom, Simon or Bob. This, Hazarika argues, is why Labour women were invisible from the 2010 Labour general election campaign, and why ‘Remain’ lost the referendum (she explains this alongside an anecdote about Cameron’s advisors steering the PM away from pigs when campaigning on a farm). Hazarika also channels Hillary in addressing the younger women in the room (of which I was one of the few), encouraging us to find our inner Nicola and not, as she did, to pour the tea for the men in a meeting in order to have something to do. Thus, ‘State of the Nation’ turns into an incredibly empowering and feminist experience.