EDINBURGH 2025: Review: KC SHORNIMA: DETACHMENT STYLE, Pleasance

If you don’t know the name KC Shornima, you may be familiar with her work as a writer for Saturday Night Live. Writing for the Weekend Update segments of the longstanding institution of comedy, she has written for hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che for three years now, but the real question is just how well she can write for herself?

Her latest hour, titled Detachment Style, is aptly named, with the comic using the hour to talk about her parents and how her upbringing impacts her adult relationships to this very day. Fairly common ground as far as stand up comedy goes, but KC delivers her material with such an impressive wit that you simply can’t control the laughter from coming out of your body.

Early on in the show KC speaks more about her childhood and how she moved around a lot as a child, moving from Nepal to Egypt to the United States. She jokes that every country she visits has a major political shift, with the Nepalese Civil War raging on during her childhood, two revolutions taking place in Egypt during her time there and America… well that’s an ongoing issue.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition that Shornima intertwines well throughout her show; how the governments of these countries failed to maintain a healthy relationship with their own people, and how maintaining a healthy relationship with the people in her personal life is difficult for KC due to her upbringing. It’s a fascinating blend, allowing for a range of material throughout the show whilst also showing not only the importance, but the complex nature of both. 

Of course, it helps that there are a lot of laughs along the way. One of the biggest laughs of the hour comes from the idea of the political assassination on Donald J. Trump, only to find out that he has been cake this entire time.

There is also a lot of crowd work throughout the show that didn’t always work during this particular performance. From a man who (somehow) did not know the rules of ‘fuck, marry, kill’ to a tame British audience tensing up around conversations around porn, sex and politics when put to the audience. However, Shornima is fast on her feet and usually manages to make a quick joke and move on.

KC Shornima’s freshest hour, and first trip to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is proof that her voice is a unique one, taking common tropes of stand up and delivering them in a satisfying way that is both poignant and hilarious. 

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