one4review | On 26, Aug 2024

Asli Akbay treated the small but perfectly formed mixed audience to a ‘my life so far as a tomboy’ story in her amusing and informative debut hour at the Edinburgh Fringe. She tells us that she was a standup in the UK before the sunshine drew her back to where she spent some of her childhood. She remained in Turkey for 10 years performing comedy in Istanbul and touring around the country. But imminent earthquakes, terrible economy and difficult political situation has eventually brought her back home.

From her early years, as a tomboy she always rejected being girly in any way, except briefly as a teenager when she was led to believe that was the way to attract boys, simply because it is more fun even as an adult. She illustrates this very amusingly and explains her poster image of a tomboy barbie doll constrained in its box and goes on to provide definitions of the word tomboy from Tudor times when traditionally girls were described as fragile. Interestingly the use of that word evolved over just a few decades from a rude boisterous boy carrying out tomfoolery, to being applied to girls who were rude, immodest, wild and romping. She dips into feminism and what non-binary might mean for her. In the end she concludes that her approach is that everyone should respect each other for their choices.
An enjoyable and illuminating hour with humour and great storytelling in Asli’s company.
***
Reviewed by HJ
Just The Tonic Caves, Just Out Of The Box
16:00 to 17.00
To 25th August (not 12th )