Aliya Kanani channels self-discovery through comedy

Aliya Kanani greets her audience at the ODD Box with immediate warmth, asking who's seen her before and scanning the crowd for familiar faces. It's the mark of an experienced standup, and she uses that comfort to draw people into an hour-long meditation on self-improvement and enlightenment gone sideways.

Kanani tells the story of a medical emergency that struck during a sold-out Edinburgh Fringe show. After being diagnosed with a kidney condition, she rejected the medical system and flew to India to join an ashram. There, she fasted and purged according to Ayurvedic traditions, submitted to medicated ghee treatments through unconventional routes, meditated, and practiced yoga. After more than a month of striving toward enlightenment, she returned to the Western world.

Midway through the show, she sits on a stool, closes her eyes, and chants "OM" while meditating — then reveals she spent the silence thinking about how much her butt hurt. Sometimes clarity doesn't come when you expect it.

After another existential crisis, she joined a second ashram for a ten-day silent retreat — a comedian's version of hell. She once drove across North America from LA to Saskatchewan specifically to meet people she believed might be hostile to a brown woman. Instead, she found only kindness.

Near the end, she begins to tell the story of how she accidentally joined a transformational leadership cult in Florida — but runs out of time. The incompleteness is part of the charm; you leave wanting her next show.

Aliya Kanani: A Comedian's Guide To Enlightenment plays at ODD Box through June 26. Tickets are $14 plus service fees, available online, at the Fringe box office (Fringe Courtyard, 67 Nicholas St), and at satellite offices (3rd floor, Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue and La Nouvelle Scène, 333 King Edward Ave).