one4review | On 15, Aug 2022

This show takes place in one of the larger venues on the Fringe, and it was about full to capacity. But I’ve never seen so many people leave during a show, especially not in such a large venue, where one would expect the more widely known comedians to be performing. Ms Harrison – while delivering an excellent show – is definitely marmite. Above half the audience were existing fans and primed to find Ms Harrison funny, and the rest of us were not.

Comedian-Patti-Harrison – this must surely be a stage persona, though it’s presented with such veracity that it feels uncomfortably real – is alienating and dislikeable, but Ms Harrison’s skills as a performer are undeniable. Comedian-Patti-Harrison displays her self-absorption and pretension to just this side of the uncanny valley: we can sense something’s wrong, but it almost looks right. It’s a strange sensation.

The more obvious turn-offs come from the things she actually says: comments of outrageous and unexpected violence in carefully calculated contrast to the demure, hair-flipping appearance and valley-girl intonation. This dichotomy is carried through into – brilliantly sung and performed – songs in the style of comedian-Patti-Harrison’s heroines, including Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush.

In technicals, the show is irreproachable. It’s well written and coherent, and Ms Harrison never wavers in her conviction and commitment, either to her character or her material. There are few punchlines in that material – comedian-Patti-Harrison is convinced we want to hear her blithering vapidity – so the humour is instead found in the contrasts and in the unexpected, and there is enough of that to meet the bar for comedy.

Ms Harrison is both an accomplished performer and an acquired taste.

Reviewed by Laura

Pleasance Courtyard
20:30 (NOT 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th or 20th)