list.co.uk/festival Reviews | F E S T I VA L C O M E DY
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DESIREE BURCH: DESIREE’S COMING EARLY! Absorbing tale of love, life and racial tropes ●●●●●
It’s 2018. Desiree Burch has just got out of a long-term relationship and she’s feeling a serious absence of dick. What else is there to do but attend Burning Man? In her new show, London-based American stand-up Burch weaves an almost mystical tale of her adventure in the Nevada desert with her best friend Dave and thousands of half-naked revellers, all the while on a mega acid trip. It’s an absorbing and surreal journey, but if you’ve seen Burch
before, you’ll know that the story she tells is never the whole picture. Instead, it’s just a part of a multi-layered, complex show that takes on everything from eugenics and institutional discrimination to #MeToo and Michael Jackson. And naked boobs, of course; after all, it is Burning Man. Put all together, it makes for a moving and hilarious hour on politics, sexuality and pop culture. Through her previous stand-up (Unf*ckable) and theatre (Tar Baby), Burch has time and again proved herself to be a mesmerising, energetic performer, and this year once more she has the audience lapping up every single word.
She is acutely aware of her role as an entertainer too, and the problematic nature of being a black stand-up performing to mostly white audiences every day. For instance, there’s a brilliant take-down of the ‘magical negro’ trope (the black character that exists purely to further the main white character’s arc) in The Green Mile. It has tonight’s sold-out crowd in stitches, but as the image comes up again and again, it takes on a greater poignancy.
Ultimately, Desiree’s Coming Early! is a great story, one that’s big on laughs but leaves you questioning the role you play in her narrative too. (Yasmin Sulaiman) n Heroes @ The Hive, until 25 Aug (not 20), 7.40pm, £10 (£7) or donations at the venue.
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MOON: WE CANNOT GET OUT Duo’s sinister set-ups sadly slip away ●●●●●
Like Noble & Silver with boiler suits, the Moon boys are looking to mess with the double-act form. Producing neatly written and deftly performed mini- bits which play around with the idea of what a sketch can be is all well and good, but where their forebears were genuinely subversive, Jack Chisnall and Joshua Dolphin deliver a personable hour with the occasional strong idea. The conceit for We Cannot Get Out is that the room
they’re operating in is playing tricks on them, leading to some dark exchanges. The notion is well set-up and there are successful sketches such as the flaws in cryogenically freezing a war hero or the man who questions how a car showroom can possibly work, both of which have a creepy menace within their inherent silliness. But the mysterious atmosphere which has been
cultivated fades away by the end, the pair totally switching off from the unhinged stage selves that had been threatening to topple over into an apocalyptic oblivion minutes earlier. Now off the clock, they calmly thank us for our attendance and politely request we chuck some money into the charity bucket outside. Talk about breaking the spell. (Brian Donaldson) n Pleasance Courtyard, until 25 Aug, 9.30pm, £8.50–£10.50 (£7.50–£9.50).
ADITI MITTAL: MOTHER OF INVENTION Powerful hour about India’s attitudes to women ●●●●● JIM CAMPBELL: BEEF Central question left hanging in spot-on show ●●●●●
Aditi Mittal is a thoroughly modern woman in a country that hasn’t caught up with her yet. If female comedians think it’s difficult in the UK, try being a woman on the Indian stand-up scene. It certainly helps that she has a fearless role model in her life, a 5ft 4in not-to-be-messed-with mother; biologically, she’s actually her aunt who, despite being a single woman of 31, took Mittal and her brother in after their birth mother died. If you had the chance to live your life again, with the benefit of all your current experience, how would you do it differently? That’s the question Jim Campbell asks in Beef, an hour-long show about daydreaming, relationship breakdowns, dogs and curses. Campbell has had a turbulent couple of years, with an engagement ring for sale (a joke recycled from his last show, Trampoline), but now he’s through the worst of it and processing the emotional aftermath.
Mittal is a fearsome storyteller blessed with a This is a spot-on stand-up show, with the one-
wonderful turn of phrase as she relates ‘awkward’ gigs where she’s endured a variety of reactions from being spat on to being arrested. Happily, this is countered by her experience of all-female crowds that joyously turn out not to be the hard-to-crack audiences they first appear. For an outsider it’s an incredible insight into Indian
culture and a valuable reminder that feminism has a very long way to go. Some of the truly shocking anecdotes are only slightly softened by Mittal’s ebullient, fast-paced style but she stills packs a powerful punch. (Marissa Burgess) n Assembly George Square, until 25 Aug, 5.30pm, £11–£12 (£10–£11).
liners coming thick and fast. He’s particularly good on his family’s curse and he has some original jokes on his break-up, a general area which is somewhat hackneyed on the comedy scene. Some cultural references fall flat for a multinational
audience, and he never does quite answer the question posed at the show’s outset of how he would live his life differently. At times, the show feels like a therapy session, but the laughs just about outweigh the sadness. Campbell is at his strongest when he’s looking outwards rather than inwards, and it will be rewarding to see him build on this. (Lauren McKay) n Just the Tonic at The Caves, until 24 Aug, 5.20pm, £5–£6 in advance or donations at the venue.
14–26 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 47