Review by Steve Bennett

Maxine Jones has spent 21 of the last 23 years raising her three sons, mostly alone. Only in the last two has she emerged from that all-demanding bubble and, after taking part in a comedy workshop, decided to try her hand at stand-up.

Unfortunately, that’s not been enough time to develop the skills she needs to hold the attention for an hour, in this show – being performed for the first time here in Brighton – that only provides the very mildest of amusement.

Jones largely mistakes telling us things for telling us jokes. The basis for her talk (‘show’ would be overstating her case) are shared family moments that presumably mean something to her and her brood: ‘What about that time I took you on a camper-van holiday to France and all you remember was me losing my temper!’ But they need a lot of punching up for general consumption, which is something she’s conspicuously failed to do. Even tales of her sons’ petty criminality are glossed over, just matters of fact rather than a basis for great material.

Likewise, there’s plenty of chat about how Ireland in 1990 was different from the UK, from where she emigrated for the sake of motherhood, but it’s more like a straightforward dispatch from the field, rather than anything of great comedy value. That she divorced pretty much as soon as it was legalised in Ireland is an interesting aside, but she doesn’t elevate it into much more.

Fellow parents are likely to sympathise with her plight of being under-appreciated by her offspring – and she’s amicable enough onstage presence as she shares the fact. But simply imparting information with a smile and an a laugh in the voice, leaving a gap to indicate that’s the punchline, isn’t enough for a fully-fledged comedy show

The meagre observations are punctuated with bits of writing she created while raising her kids – clearly she’s had a long-term yearning for a creative outlet – which only adds to the semi-detached feeling of a performance that doesn’t delve deep enough to be personal; nor offer enough original insight to be effective observational comedy.

Review date: 17 May 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Brighton The Quadrant