Welcome to a slice of Michael Akadiri’s life: comedian, junior doctor, romantic partner, black man, son, Londoner, bouncing enthusiast, but no scrub – in the old school TLC vernacular of the song. As a uniform of societal respectability he totally has his NHS scrubs uniform laying testimony to his worthiness. Which is problematic, he tells us, because the scrubs do not maketh the man any more than a hoodie might.
Akadiri starts by sketching out his identity as a junior doctor. On rotation for his medical foundation training, contextualising it within his outside-work relationships, the sharp NHS-insider humour rings slightly of Adam Kay’s ‘This Is Going To Hurt’ with a pointed truth and comedy mined deep under pressure.
He’s engaging, with a knack for similies, and a steady patter of punchlines dropping that land so bountifully that if you miss one you can be sure that another will be arriving within the next half a minute to entertain.
He punches serious political points at the state of the NHS and its treatment during the pandemic, alongside his personal treatment during the pandemic. The perks that shouldn’t have to subsidise a national health system. It’s humorously put, without stripping any of the thump that an insider’s glimpse delivers.
Akadiri has a love of modern language that serves him well and is delightful to hear, an intelligent colloquial turn of phrase that is entirely his own and that is consistent throughout, whether he’s talking about his own Nigerian pride or childish glee at the plotting he must conduct in order to go trampolining. Akadiri’s language, like his ‘No Scrubs’ identity, straddles two preconceptions artfully with a challenge to both – comedian and doctor, rebel and heart of respectability. The details of his life: his supermarket snobbery, ‘casual’ racism that is still found in every quarter, sex-play mishaps; they all come together to fill in the broader strokes of this self-portrait, should we begin to choose to think that we know him under one single label. A theme shot through the show again and again, like a stick of rock with it’s origin’s name.
Sharing snapshots from a personal history, Akadiri has put together a disarmingly honest and intelligent debut. No punches pulled, no scrubs found.
Michael Akadiri – No Scrubs
Pleasance Courtyard, 3-28 August (except 16th) 2022
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Michael%20Akadiri%3A%20No%20Scrubs%22
