Aarian Mehrabani: How’s your Head? – The Lowry

The comedian Aarian Mehrabani premieres ‘How’s Your Head?’ at the Lowry Theatre this week. Directed by Dec Munro and commissioned by The Lowry, with support from the Arts Council England, this performance was the perfect preparation for Mehrabani’s upcoming Edinburgh Fringe Performance later this year. Having had previous success with his company ‘FlawBored’, he won awards for his debut show, ‘It’s a motherf***ing pleasure’ that completed with a three week run on Broadway.

Describing himself as a ‘triple threat’: Brown, Bisexual and Blind, Mehrabani is certainly one interesting guy. He relays funny tales including his experiences of having an STI, his thoughts on the children’s story ‘Elemer the Elephant’ and in dramatic contrast to much of his tales, he bravely discusses having survived an aggressive brain tumour. His comedic style is occasionally hesitant but largely displays incredible timing and confidence on stage.

Whilst having a consistently witty comedic style, some subject areas could have perhaps been cut short to allow more narration of others. Mehrabani did discuss more serious subjects, in particular his diagnosis in 2024 of an aggressive brain tumour. This appeared difficult on occasions for him to discuss, with long pauses displaying some vulnerability. It wasn’t the fact that there was no humour to be found at this time (there appeared to be plenty!) it was a general sense that the audience may have hesitated in laughing at some aspects due to the deeply personal nature of this narrative. It could be argued that it was brave perhaps for an audience member to laugh at the incredibly distressing life-threatening situation he found himself in during this time. However, this narration certainly created a change in energy and shifted from laughter to a sense that Mehrabani was being purely reflective of this time. His wonderful tale of ‘ringing the bell’ from his school days to ringing it at the end of his cancer treatment was poignant and very amusing.  

If you want to see Mehrabani’s hilarious answer to the question ‘How’s Your Head?’ do go and see the show. Just be aware that if you are on the front row, you may be required to suck an egg, approve his oncology medical records, a document from the Eye Hospital confirming his blindness and details of his STI test results- currently all negative!

‘How’s Your Head?’ is on at The Lowry Theatre until Saturday 1^st August ahead of taking the show to Edinburgh Fringe.  Tickets for Saturday’s performance can be purchased online from www.tickets.thelowry.com

Reviewer: Angela Kelly

Reviewed: 31st July 2026

North West End UK Rating: