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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Funny Women At The Fringe
Verdict: Top Comedy
Smelly and damp, The Underbelly emits a shambolic charm all of its own (writes Cecilia Holmes). Tonight it throbs with young punters hassling for tickets - here to experience the explosion of comedic talent at the cliff-face of the Fringe.
The venue on Cowgate wins hands-down for being the crème-de-la-crème of student-union bars. Dive into a sweat-stained sofa, crush a fag out on the floor - and wait to be called into one of many Belly rooms. Funny Women At The Fringe tonight is in White Belly - apt after eating deep-fried Mars Bars.
White Belly looks like an aircraft hanger. It’s packed to the doors with women. There’s a few dissenting lads in the front row. They seem to have been dragged here by girlfriends keen to point out that girl comics are not just about periods and internal bits.
Come on lads - step off your crosses and bleed in the face of embarrassment.
Gina Yashere is the ideal host to allay worries about things being too right-on. She charms with her London-girl reality-check on life and shopping at Lidl's. Smiling and revelling in being cheeky, Gina Yashere gets away with lots of crudeness by apologising about it as she goes along: 'I am not going along with the stereotype of women comics, no more wank jokes’.
Karen Bailey sets off with a great one-liner about being a Brummy – ’This is not an accent, this is a contraceptive'. It takes a while to get into her pace, but there’s some great material about Brummies being thought thick.
It’s quite self-deprecating. Karen Bailey does get into the vibrator/single-woman area, but carries it off with brisk repartee. Groans from the blokes in the front row means she has struck home base. Aargh.
Ayesha Hazarika uses juxtaposition of two cultures for some good laughs. She describes herself as an Asian girl with Muslim parents, brought up in a Glasgow suburb - with a knowledge of the Koran and Scottish dancing. Her manner is charming. Fluid and in control she discusses her parents’ solid married life.
Ayesha Hazarika remarks that Muslims don’t get divorced - and what a shame that is. As a teenager, she wanted to taste the delights her friends experienced with their broken homes. It’s an interesting take on normal family life, and wanting the excitement of at least a little dysfunction.
Anna Crilly starts with a strong line leading one way, then taking the audience by surprise. It’s annoying that people put margarine on a sandwich when they say it’s butter, she points out – suggesting that it’s a sandwich bar. The switch is that she’s describing ‘what you get at common people's houses'. Her timing and delivery is exact.
Anna Crilly keeps up her stage-persona throughout as a slightly ditzy, obtuse, country girl. She has an eye for obscure detail, which only she can carry off, given the style she adopts. Men in the audience unite and give some good (white) belly-laughs - her particular brand of sarcastic humour seems to appeal to the guys.
One of Anna Crilly's lines is about stretch limousines: ‘Don't think it’s a celebrity in there. It’s a car full of slappers'. It’s sharply-observed stuff.
Lucy Porter, like Gina Yashere, gets away with a lot more crudity than most by sheer charm and cheekiness. Her questioning of a guy in the front row is explicit. But she carries it off by being very sympathetic, and treating him like a cute cuddly-toy.
Cock and cunt are mentioned in an almost nun-like and reverential way. Lucy Porter mentions that her diminutive build misleads people into thinking that she’s a pushover - but it works for her on stage, as people feel un-threatened. Lads can relax: she‘s not going to talk about periods - just dismembered cocks, and her fantasies about being in a tub full of them.
Lucy Porter starts to get into hot and potentially un-PC territory with her comparisons between men and women. Again she pulls out nicely from her subject of girl and boy knickers by being slightly on the mumsy side rather than vampish. Clever persona and the suggestion of a tub-full of experience.
Cast Credits (alpha order): Karen Bailey. Anna Crilly. Ayesha Hazarika. Lucy Porter. MC - Gina Yashere.
Company Credits: Sponsor: Babycham. Technical Operation - Venue Staff. Producer - Lynne Parker. Promoter - Christian Knowles (CKP). Funny Women At The Fringe sponsors: Babycham, Lee Cooper, Avon and Handbag.com.
END
(c) Cecilia Holmes 2004
reviewed 25 August 04 / The Underbelly
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
