one4review | On 07, Aug 2019

This show is likely to do that rare thing of drawing in an audience from a broad base, and do so without being generic, or lacking individuality or style. Ms Cook’s comedy is intelligent, and reflective, and often subtle – unless she’s talking about Greco-roman statuary, which is not subtle, hilarious, and very informative.

Ms Cook acquired for herself a rule to live by: do what scares you. This lead to some people asking if she had a death wish…and hence the title of the show. If there was an award for most accurate show-blurb, Ms Cook should definitely be nominated, if not win. The show intersperses music with stories, and both are equally wonderful. The songs are funny, sometimes with a not-so-concealed barb, and the lyrics are entirely comprehensible. Ms Cook not only plays guitar and sings, she also controls the slide show by means of a foot pedal – a masterful level of multitasking, but simply symptomatic of Ms Cook as a consummate performer.

The show is extremely tightly written and well-crafted, though the presentation is so seamless and smooth as to make you think it was easy, and belie the hard work that must have gone into it. The craft is also obvious – though only on reflection, not while you’re in it – in the structure of the show, which is simple, and devastatingly effective: unobtrusively drawing you in and then launching the ending at you.

We were a small audience but the applause was huge, and people were still grinning on the way out. A gem of a show.

Reviewed by Laura

Just the Tonic at The Grassmarket Centre
17:50 (not 12th)