“The King’s Jester” was arguably the highlight of my year (okay, this isn’t the highest standard considering the rest of my year has been spent in medical school, but still). I have always been a fan of Hasan Minhaj’s comedy, but seeing it in person exceeded all of my expectations. His confessional comedy style allows him to ebb and flow between hilarious satire and touching sincerity, the interplay of which was certainly not lost on his new set.
I later read critical reviews that “The King’s Jester” lacked the same thematic unity and sincerity as his previous works “Homecoming King” and “Patriot Act,” but I believe this to be a misleading opinion. Without divulging too much of the show’s contents (although, it’s worth watching whether you’ve heard spoilers or not), he starts off the story of the set with his struggles to start a family, tackling the difficult and much too infrequently discussed topic of infertility issues. As we hear about his budding family and his newfound love of fatherhood, he sets up a parallel story of why he started his award-winning Netflix Show “Patriot Act,” after experiencing injustices and taking agency throughout his life as a first-generation American citizen.
While seemingly disconnected at first, he weaves together a narrative of how his fame skyrocketed after his critical episode on Saudi Arabia made him a criminal by their law and how consecutive dangerous decisions he made blinded by popularity began to threaten the fledgling family he had fought so hard to create.
Minhaj confesses his difficulties in responding to his wife’s question “Where is the line?” and wonders aloud why he does his work and who he’s doing it for.
Hasan Minhaj made his mark with “Homecoming King,” which told a hilariously heart-touching story of an Indian-American Muslim boy growing up in post-9/11 America, but that’s a story he can only tell so many times. It’s natural for people’s lives to change, so it’s a given that his comedy grew to match the new stages and themes of his life. However, I definitely appreciated the small references Minhaj included from his previous shows, which made the audience feel as though they were in on an inside joke that gave pockets of familiarity to bridge the divide between those who still craved his older content. But even beyond that, he added new layers of interpretation to his famous old catchphrases, like “Log kya kahenge” (‘what will people think’), which made the set seem like the natural next instalment of Minhaj’s works.
The content was all there. It was different and he crossed many lines that I did not expect him to cross, but was happily surprised in the process (although, I may not have been so happily surprised if my brown parents were watching with me). This was augmented by his penchant for interacting with the audience and his ability to crack great jokes in more dynamic scenarios.
The delivery was on point. Minhaj has always been a charismatic performer, but his occasionally unhinged segments are best experienced live. He didn’t drop a beat even though there was an altercation in the audience, but rather calmed the crowd down until the conflict was over and segwayed smoothly into his next bit.
If you have the opportunity to get tickets for “The King’s Jester,” you should definitely take it. It felt like the first time my friends and I hadn’t thought about school in a while and the abdominal workout from all the laughs was a great way to knock out two self-care goals in one sitting.