I don't go to see many shows during the Fringe, I just don't feel like seeing comedy when I am that depressed. So I try to catch up a bit by catching my favourite comedians on tour. Tonight we went to see Australian filth-pot Sarah Kendall
at the Soho Theatre. It seems that last year's Fringe was packed with female comedians doing shows about feminism with great shows from Danielle Ward, Bridget Christie, Helen Keen, my wife Catie Wilkins and several others. I had seen a few of these in preview and assumed that this would be the big press story of the year, but this trend seemed to pass by unnoticed, which is both typical and faintly ironic. I commented to my wife that I might do a show on feminism this year and she correctly pointed out that it might well take a man doing it in order to get it noticed. Though the Fringe is such a sprawling entity now that I think it's pretty difficult for any one critic to get to see enough shows to be able to spot connecting threads.
The danger with tackling this subject is that it's easy to get polemical or angry and not be all that funny, so it takes proper skill to get people laughing and not feel berated (all the above managed this). Sarah was properly funny, with the added jeopardy of being eight months pregnant so there was always the danger that a tiny human might emerge from her at any second.
As positive as it is that Stewart is showcasing some of the more obscure comedy talents on the circuit, it's impossible to include everyone. Sarah is a notable omission from his roster. In truth there are more interesting acts on the circuit (at least the one that I work on) than mainstream ones. Inevitably some great comics end up not getting the recognition they deserve. Hopefully Sarah will at some point, but in the meantime try and see this show this week if you're in London. She had me helpless with laughter at one point. You'll never look at the Ugly Duckling in the same way after this.
I am not going to do a show about feminism this year though (I think Talking Cock had a healthy seam of feminism in it, though I didn't beat anyone over the head with it - too busy beating them over the head with my cock). I think I have pretty much decided to take on death. I haven't thought of a title yet, though Richard Herring Takes on Death is accidentally quite a good title. If only Bill and Ted hadn't done the Twister versus death thing already I would have the poster too. A different take on the Seventh Seal might work well though. Hmmmm.
Meanwhile I was surprised to see that according the the BBC Findus lasagne was made from 100% horse. What bit of the animal did they make the pasta from? Impressive. Though @mkn1ght was more concerned about how they came up with the cheese sauce. Oh. Oh God. No.
Having eaten a lot of Findus crispy pancakes as a teenager I am pretty amazed that there was any real meat in any of their products. Or any real food. Those things were something else. Turns out that maybe all their food is.
