Explore 14 Finale Review: Good dancing, bad comedy

‘Explore 14’, the Union’s cultural festival, ended last night with a series of performances celebrating a range of cultural backgrounds. Whilst the Union is to be commended for organising a festival celebrating diversity at Bristol University, I was disappointed by the quality of the event, particularly the comedy. There were some good acts on display, but also several which did not live up to expectations. The fact that around a third of the audience left before the event had finished spoke volumes.

The stars of the show were the Chinese Society performers, whose lion dance was a sight to behold. The energy and athleticism of the dancers was remarkable, brilliantly replicating the movements of a lion with their stunning puppet. The African Society dance was also enjoyable and energetic. Other impressive acts included live music from the Pakistani Society and a belly dancing performance.

I don’t really like to single individuals out for criticism, but this event really was spoiled by presenter, Shazia Mirza, whose attempts at comedy were a bit embarrassing. Her humour involved asking members of the audience what nationality they were and then saying ‘oh, you escaped then’ or something along those lines. Her ‘banter’ with a Computer Science student, which lasted the entirety of her performance and involved childish lines like ‘oh shut up’ and ‘I predict you’re going to get a 2:2’, was something that belonged in the school playground. She didn’t know the order of the acts and kept having to ask the event organiser whose turn it was to perform next. Towards the end, she introduced the African Society by saying, ‘Oh look, it’s time for the African Soc, let’s all sing Free Nelson Mandela’. You could feel the audience wince.

Just when you thought the comedy couldn’t get any worse, the audience had to endure one of the most bizarre stand-up performances ever delivered. The girl, apparently a member of the Hindu Society, rambled on incoherently for a good ten minutes, making a series of strange comments about lesbianism which nobody seemed to understand. After walking off to half-hearted applause, she later returned with an equally odd performance of Massive Attack’s Teardrop, which she clearly hadn’t rehearsed, reading the lyrics off her IPhone. I’m not sure whether the girl was doing this deliberately in an attempt at satire, or whether she was just doing it for a laugh. Whatever the case may be, I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed given that Bristol’s Lord Mayor was sat in the front row.

The final act, ‘spoken word activist’, Zubair Yakeen, summed up the night by producing two performances varying wildly in quality. He began with a rap about ‘culture’, which featured the lines ‘without culture, you ain’t gonna sculpture’ and ‘culture keeps on revolvin’ round and round me, back to back’, but then treated the audience to a superb beat boxing display. Yakeen is clearly talented, but should definitely leave out the rap in future.

All in all, there were some great acts on display, but there were also some disappointing ones. Sadly, the presenter’s waffle took up a good half of the event, meaning that I am only able to award the event two stars out of five.