Pleasance Courtyard: Bunker Three
Aug 6-13, 15-26
21:45
At some point in every Fringe I find myself in an audience that is really enjoying a comedian, where I’m silently pensive, chewing my pen, hand on my chin, wondering why? It happened early this Fringe, at Bella Hull’s sold-out show, Piggies, in one of the Pleasance Bunkers, but as Bella’s lexicon began flashing across my mind like words being dragg’d through the skies by some WW1 biplane, I suddenly realised – I was surrounded by readers of the Telegraph & Guardian (probably).
My instincts were beginning to be prov’d right when she ask’d one member of the audience their job, & his response was ‘a property developer.’ A little later my suspicions were confirm’d when Bella divulg’d she had been sent to an all-girls school for 13 years. The Middle Classes are people too, right, but using their existence as subject matter for stand-up lacks the universality of true comedy.
“That is a triptych to rival Hieronymus Bosch”
But it’s not all Pro Rata, Peer Review & Ann Widdecombe, there was also the rather dodgy, but I expect cathartic for her, exposition of her early pubescence, in which she used a new word to describe her younger self, which I’m not gonna repeat as it’s pretty fuckin’ wrong – lest it catches hold in society.
Despite all that, Bella is a rather pleasant watch, she’s very eloquent & clearly smart… & I was laughing sometimes, sure; but not all the time. I found her tricky to follow – like one of those kayaking events over in France right now, rushing thro’ her set & occasionally bouncing off the gates. More a glider than a spitfire, she can carry a full hour’s show, for sure – the time literally flew by, but she won’t be everyone’s cup of earl grey tea.
Damo
themumble.uk 