Homecoming King, the one-man show by Hasan Minhaj now playing at Cherry Lane Theater, tells a familiar story – a young Indian boy growing up in the mostly white town of Davis, California. His story is rife with immigrant angst and culture clashes, with tropes of alienation and identity on full display. Throw in a healthy dose of bigotry and you’ve got the classic "Who am I?" immigrant coming-of-age story.
What distinguishes the work from plays that explore similar themes is Hasan Minhaj himself. The comedian, who is currently a correspondent on The Daily Show, is completely at ease on stage. His charisma, delightful sense of humor, and ability to pace the show to the audience’s reactions make Homecoming King worth a watch.
There’s no shortage of funny one-liners, like "When you go back to India, you feel like a black rapper who made it," and "Let’s face it, brown love is conditional." The audience on Thursday night’s show, made up predominantly of South Asians, was undoubtedly entertained by these jokes, delivered effortlessly by a confident Minhaj. Some of these jokes, of course, are at the Indian community’s expense, but Minhaj is careful to not let the show devolve into stereotypes. He pokes fun at his sister’s fashion choices, but then acknowledges that the girl who he is describing as a refugee has pretty much grown up to become “card-carrying Republican.” Even cultural references are nuanced and shown to have echoes in other languages. Minhaj describes his father's concern over “log kya kahenge,” which means "what will people say," but it’s the same sentiment the father of Minhaj’s white girlfriend, Bethany, falls prey to.
Theater-goers may find Homecoming King, directed by Greg Walloch, to straddle the line between theater and stand-up comedy; it never quite exploits its theatrical possibilities, employing little more than projections of family photographs to aid the storytelling. Still, as familiar as Minhaj's story is to me, it is not one commonly seen in theatre, and it’s inspiring to watch such a story be told with such finesse and charm by a remarkable young talent.
