Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Not really a show in any premeditated sense, this is two old comedy friends delighted to be back on stage talking away in front of a real audience and occasionally slipping into material – but not if they can help it.

Both JoJo Sutherland and Susan Morrison are experienced comperes, and much of the show involves just chatting to the audience. Along with the usual ‘where are you from?’ banter, they ask punters to share details of the first drink that made them sick, allowing them to combine two comedy-club favourite topics of conversation: getting drunk and nostalgia. 

Mention of Ouzo gets an ‘ooh’ of recognition, then we all join in a singalong of the 1980s Martini advert, among much else. It’s all safe stuff, certainly, but none the less effective for it.

The pair are of a certain vintage – they claim 112 years of lived experience between them - and both lean into the travails of middle age and celebrate that they need no longer concern themselves with decorum. As if they ever did. 

Glorifying Scottish swearing feeds into the same vibe. It’s an affirming attitude that the audience – predominantly of a similar demographic - are happy to share in.

For all the badinage, the hour is at its best when they change gear for material. Morrison shines with her admirably defiant approach to all the cancers she’s had: the topic may be serious, but there’s not a shred of gravitas here, again flying in the face of ‘expected’ behaviour. While Sutherland has a great story about picking up her drunk daughter from a nightclub and hints at a complex family history that she’s told in a previous Fringe show.

Away from prepared routines, the pair sometimes let the conversation spin away from them, overpadding the hour with chit-chat. And they tend to talk over each other until they settle on who will take the lead in each audience exchange.

But this can be forgiven in the excitement of the return to live performing. Discipline is for another day... and that apparently also applies to the grammar of the title.

Review date: 15 Aug 2021
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Gilded Balloon Teviot