Underbelly George Square
The Wee Coo
Aug 5–30 (22:20)
Irish Ashlee Bentley has earned her spot on this year’s Underbelly programme at the Edinburgh Fringe as the winner of the Magners Share the Craic comedy search. After weeks of nationwide talent-spotting, one standout voice rose to the top, & now takes the stage with a debut I’m glad I was among the first to witness – within the first week.
First thing’s first,, just what exactly is the craic, one of those wonderfully Irish concepts that seems simple enough until you actually try to explain it. The craic isn’t merely having a laugh, nor is it just conversation, drinking, music or mischief; it’s the mysterious communal electricity produced when all those things collide in the right company at the right moment. You can’t manufacture the craic, you can’t schedule the craic, & God help anyone who announces they’re going somewhere specifically for the craic. It has to emerge naturally—a spontaneous republic of storytelling, slagging, exaggeration & laughter in which everybody briefly becomes both performer & audience.
Well, according to an Irish judging panel, Ashlee Bentley apparently has it, & is now the international ambassador for it. Winner of the inaugural Magners Share the Craic competition, Ashlee fought her way through a field of more than 500 entrants, first winning the London heat before facing Tim Biglowe, Adam Jones, Murph & Catriona Paterson in the grand final at Underbelly Boulevard in Soho on June 30. Bentley’s weaponry is a low-key, deadpan awkwardness—quirky observations, social anxiety & brutally honest autobiographical stuff—which ultimately won over the judges and landed her a Fringe prize package worth more than £15,000: accommodation, travel, professional support & a full run at Underbelly’s Wee Coo.
“Lemon & herb chlamydia”
The whole story is one day, most definitely, gonna make one of those Irish comedy films that I really love. Ashlee, you need to start scripting it out now, love, while your comedy star is rising. The film will be all about how Bentley surfed her comeback on a wave of fully-funded euphoria. A Funny Women finalist, she’d previously brought a 50-minute show to Edinburgh way back in 2015, but subsequently came close to quitting comedy altogether because she didn’t think she was good enough. Winning Share the Craic suddenly gave her little more than a month to turn herself into a full Fringe act – & she’s pull’d it off with professional aplomb.
Ashlee has a really inviting manner, reaffirming her gag-drops with little flutters of the head. Along the way we learn all sorts of interesting stuff about her. Her nan call’d her Petal. At 12 she thought she’d caught the miraculous Irish pregnancy off the butcher — just by going into the butcher’s, not actually being with him. She loves a good Catholic funeral. Her husband’s really lovely, & when she asks him why he does such nice stuff for her, he replies that it’s because she starts screaming if he doesn’t. Stuff like that – not jokes, just life, but made funny by Ashlee’s acute & intensive sense of humour.
“My school nickname was ‘Shit My Pants’
I was homeschooled, by the way.”
Ashlee commands her set & the room with a Zulu-chieftain level of confidence. Her delivery is class — borderline mundane, but brilliantly done. She really does live up to that Wallflower persona she’s projecting at us thro’ the marketing. The thing is, I know underneath she’s a mad-for-it siren. We’re only getting to see a very tiny, 45-minute side-slice of Ashlee, & I’m convinced there are darker recesses, & brighter lanterns she’s keeping hidden from us for now – but all manna-tapping-in-the-waiting for whatever future shows Ashlee creates for the world. She’s off, away, & shining bright – go get ’em Ashlee.
Damo
