Anil Desai

When you hear the word “impressionism”, you will, of course, instantly think of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, or the early work of Paul Cézanne. However, given that this is in the Comedy section, discussions of nineteenth-century art would be somewhat misplaced, so I'll shut up about it.

Instead, let's talk about the other kind of impressionism. Nowadays, you don't see a lot of impersonations on TV, and the few that are there, aren't the most entertaining or technically brilliant pieces of work. They're typically either out-dated, derivative, unfunny sketch shows, or Rob Brydon doing Ronnie Corbett.

However, that isn't the full story. We at Recharged reckon Anil Desai is the most exciting impressionist we've seen, combining an Illuminati-shape-shifting-lizard-like ability to inhabit a character instantaneously with the detail that many exponents of his craft omit: actually being funny.

Anyway, check it out:






Part One



Part Two



Part Three





All performance footage used courtesy of Chortle UK.

Anil's four-part series for the BBC “How To Impersonate”, can be found here.

If you want to see Anil perform his wondrous transformations live, then catch him at one of these places:

19/11/10 - Charity Show, Kent
20/11/10 - Bulmer's Comedy Festival
23/11/10 - Dont Brick Yourself, The Brick House, London
25/11/10 - Haahaa Comedy, Dover
26/11/10 - Haahaa Comedy, Ashford
27/11/10 - Funhouse Comedy, Lincoln
30/11/10 - Dont Brick Yourself, The Brick House, London
02/12/10 - Haahaa Heehee Comedy Clubs, St Albans
03/12/10 - Magic Night, Madam Jojo's
03/12/10 - Spank! The Albany, London
07/12/10 - Falling Down With Laughter, London
14/12/10 - Dont Brick Yourself, The Brick House, London
16/12/10 - Haha Hee Hee Comedy, Isle of Man
17/12/10 - Magic Night, Madam Jojo's, London
20/12/10 - We Love Comedy, Soho

You can also keep tabs on his movements at his Facebook Group here.