Raul Kohli wants to build bridges between the right-wing rioters and the liberal left through his comedy – and it’s actually working.
Hailing from Newcastle, the comedian actually changed the stance of an EDL member during his show, Raul Kohli: Raul Britannia, at the Edinburgh Fringe festival earlier this week.
‘We had an EDL supporter in from Sunderland,’ Raul explains in a chat with Metro.co.uk at the Scottish arts festival. A woman who was flyering the show handed him a poster and he said, “I like the title,” and she was like, “Where are you from?” He replied Sunderland, and that he’s in the EDL.’
While you would think at the Edinburgh Fringe – probably the most proudly socially progressive event in the UK – this wouldn’t go down too well, Raul’s flyerer promised the EDL member he would enjoy the show.
If not, she vowed to buy him and his friend a pint. Ballsy.
‘They came out of the show and she asked, “Did you enjoy it?” He said, “Yeah it’s changed my opinion on a number of things,”’ explains Raul. ‘Then he brought her a beer.’
It’s a modern-day fairytale, but Raul is unconvinced it will survive in the world outside the love bubble that is the Edinburgh Fringe.
‘I’m not sure how much of a difference it will make because how often do we get the space in our consciousness to just stop and think, reflect and change an opinion.
‘He might think about it a little bit, but then go home, go on Twitter, and his algorithm will reconfirm all his worst prejudices. Then he’ll forget about my show and fall back into that way of thinking.’
For over 10 years Raul has been trying to change minds via the stage through his nuanced approach to political comedy. But now his goal is more important than ever, as we saw over the past month when violent racially-motivated riots broke out across the UK.
But while stopping the ‘inevitable’ political division may seem futile to Raul, he won’t stop trying.
‘The show is not just for liberal theatre audiences. It’s trying to change minds and win hearts, essentially,’ he says.
‘I grew up in the North East, I know what the craic is there. I’ve been cutting my teeth in a lot of these towns and in working men’s clubs.
‘Some of these people I’m performing to might have sympathy with the rioters, or riot themselves.
‘I’m always trying to find middle grounds,’ he adds. ‘There has to be some sort of human story as to why they got to a particular opinion that maybe makes me feel threatened or I disagree with.’
It’s not often that the comedy world caters quite so well for both sides of the political dial – especially not at the biggest open liberal arts festival in Europe. Here, comedy is a campaign as much as it is a celebration.
‘In general at the Edinburgh Fringe people like to stick in their own groups. It’s like, “Everyone who voted Brexit is thick and racist, they’re wrong.”
‘I voted remain, but I know a lot of people who voted for Brexit and I wouldn’t necessarily call them racist.’ Raul says, before quipping with a chuckle: ‘Well, some of them are thick.’
But many of these people are not stupid, Raul points out. Many of them are Raul’s family members, friends, and people he grew up with. One white working-class man who used to babysit Raul – and is constantly commenting with supportive messages on his social media – shared a disgusting joke a few years ago which compared immigrants to ‘a brown, smelly, dog who s**ts wherever they want’.
‘I couldn’t believe it,’ says Raul. ‘I remember him as such a lovely guy, he never said anything racist. My parents trusted him implicitly, you wouldn’t leave your kids with someone you didn’t trust. He was the loveliest man.’
But Raul doesn’t choose to hold onto the joke. He chooses to remember the kindness the man showed him as a child, and how much he still loves him now.
‘If I saw him we’d have a discussion and maybe I could change his opinions on why you don’t share that sort of stuff,’ Raul says. ‘While it’s very easy to go, “You’re wrong, I’m not engaging with you anymore,” if you tell that to enough people, suddenly they find themselves in the waiting arms of someone else who has been called racist. The next thing you know there’s more of them than there are of us.’
He gives an example of an old woman posting her views after seeing a video on the internet of terrorists who look like Raul attacking white people, and being called a racist as a result.
‘We’re seeing people’s opinions before we’re seeing humanity,’ he says. ‘You might have some old woman who doesn’t know how to dissect information – she’s reacting emotionally from something she’s seen.
‘She might just think it’s a problem with immigrants, just off this one post. Instead of people going, “Oh, this is just an old woman who doesn’t know how to disseminate information online,” they call her a racist.
‘But you forget that’s someone’s grandmother, mother, so they go in on her because they’ve seen the opinion before they’ve seen the human being.’
Raul’s approach is at odds with the growing ‘claptor comedy’ trend, which sees comics preaching to the choir by reaffirming all their own views in a lovely laugh-filled echo chamber, rather than challenging them – much like a real-life social media algorithm.
‘That’s what I started doing, I started doing comedy from a left wing perspective of a young guy who is a student. I was at a red brick left wing university and gigging to other students, and just getting them to clap because they agree with you.
‘I was like this isn’t really going to stand the test of time. Yes, in this room you look amazing, but you’re not going to change any minds.’
The ability to see both sides is something Raul was doing far before he first took to the stage in Newcastle all those years ago, as he grew up as Hindo and Sikh, and was never quite accepted in either temple.
AN EDL MEMBER CAME TO MY SHOW!
— Raul Kohli (@RaulKohliComic) August 8, 2024
Raul Britannia
Every Day #Edfringe
Cabaret Voltaire
6.30pm#Southport #britain #England #riots #Edl pic.twitter.com/7G8Iffzu2R
Through work, Raul has now found an authentic voice that speaks to a whole host of demographics and he can straddle all the different versions of himself, and others.
‘It connects with working-class people, upper class, white people, minorities, people at the Fringe, or people at a working men’s club,’ he says.
‘I just feel if you push two sides further away the recipe is always a disaster. Coming from a background of my dad and my mam being Hindu and Sikh, they were married when my dad’s side tried to genocide my mum’s side.
‘I’ve seen second-hand through storytelling where this can lead if this wound is left to fester. I think this month we’ve seen that.’
But Raul is just a comedian – not Elon Musk.
‘I’m a middle-of-the-road comedian. I’m not going to make these grand, sweeping changes any time soon. I think it’s up to people bigger than me.
‘I’ll do my bit with my shows, and if an EDL member comes and he changes his mind, all the better. If I can get them one by one by one then who knows? Maybe we will have a chance of a brighter future.’
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