With this show, Bowers is developing a unique comic voice that fuses chaos with intense thought. For all its craziness and playfulness, it remains authentic and sincere.Summary
Rating
Good
Sameera Bhalotra Bowers’ What Is Going On? is a joyfully chaotic hour of comedy that mixes PowerPoint slides, puppetry, stand-up, and outright silliness into a uniquely strange package. Fresh out of university, Bowers isn’t quite sure how to navigate the real world. Her show is part Sesame Street for academics, part surreal crash course in how to thoroughly confuse yourself in life.
One of the main themes is the uselessness of academic thinking when faced with real-world problems. Early on, a PowerPoint illustrates this perfectly: an economist and a geographer argue furiously about where to place a hotel, only to both decide on putting it a fraction away from each other’s suggestion. This is typical of Bowers’ world, where highly knowledgeable people make ridiculous choices. In a later puppetry sequence, her father (represented by a glove puppet) squanders the family savings on a specialised guitar pedal, he runs a red light, nearly crashes into children, and finally drives into a lake – all while chatting about his decision. It’s clear that by graduating Bowers is preparing to leave a world she knows all too well. When she mentions that her mother is an academic, the audience bursts into laughter: it makes perfect sense.
Bowers herself is logical to the point of absurdity. Much of her comedy comes from taking metaphors and theories literally: fretting about the cruelty of making cows spherical in a vacuum, or misinterpreting metaphorical advice so it becomes impractical. This analytical side is set against her silly, almost childlike side – her idea of a perfect birthday is pancakes, Coca-Cola, and squirty cream. It’s this clash of logic and playfulness that keeps the show lively.
Her detour into the spiritual is equally entertaining. A psychic named Chrystal, dripping with clichés about “energy” and pausing dramatically to “let that sink in,” sits on just the right side of irritation: familiar, a little grating, but always funny. The character itself isn’t particularly original, but Bowers performs it with commitment and playfulness.
With sound advice unavailable from academics, family, or psychics, she considers skipping the trials of adult life altogether and going straight to a retirement home, where she imagines herself as the life of the party among the elderly. In one sequence she indulges in the surreal fantasy of gracing the cover of the home’s brochure – a privilege denied to her at school because there were too many other Asian girls to make her the token face of diversity. The AI-generated mock-ups of the poster are a particular highlight. Still, some of the script could be tightened, while keeping all the punchlines intact.
This is true of several segments. While the academic ramblings make their point, they sometimes linger past the punchline. It might be even funnier if Bowers attempted – and failed – to apply some of these absurd theories in her own life outside the university setting that instilled them in her.
By the end, Bowers is a fantastic mess, covered in cream and Coke, and mentally frazzled. It’s the perfect setup for a final tonal shift. The silliness pauses for a moment as she reminds herself to call her grandmother, not for advice or judgment, but simply to let her know how she’s doing. This is the most serious part of the show but the message is strangely uplifting and hopeful, making it a great closer for the comic madness.
With this show, Bowers is developing a unique comic voice that fuses chaos with intense thought. For all its craziness and playfulness, it remains authentic and sincere.
Written by Sameera Bhalotra Bowers
What Is Going On? has completed its run at this year’s Camden Fringe.
