Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Abigoliah Schamaun’s story is not short of jeopardy. For while applying for a visa to stay in the UK with her partner, Tom, might seem like administrative tedium, the stakes could not be much higher. The process puts two lives and a shared future in agonising limbo and when – as in the comedian’s case – the paperwork is summarily dismissed, it is a hammer blow not just to her dreams but to her assumed certainties.

There’s a reason the right to family life is enshrined in the human rights act (at least until Priti Patel or her successor gets her talons into it) – so no wonder Ohio-born Schamaun gets visibly emotional when considering how this case might have torpedoed her life. Her exploitation of a loophole to keep working as a stand-up in the UK for the last few years is what came back to haunt her.

The twisty trials and tribulations throughout this process keep the audience hooked. But a good story is nothing without a good storyteller and Schamaun spins it vividly, especially given we already know the ending. She paints lucid caricatures, too, such as her solicitor, who is an immigration lawyer by day and comedian and burlesque performer by night.

The Kafkaesque immigration processes is so full of dark absurdities that merely to point them out elicits laughs of incredulity. There’s absurdity too, in her ADHD and her partner’s autism, both mocked with the affection that first-hand experience allows.

Schamaun begins with some fairly typical national stereotypes: Americans like her are all happiness and enthusiasm, Brits are dour, apologetic, passive-aggressive and speak like Harry Potter. It’s not the most auspicious of starts but is an easily digestible appetiser to the main, engrossing story. 

And she does live up to the Yankee archetype, generally putting a positive light-hearted spin on the story – at least where she can – and has a commanding stage presence. Even in a storytelling show, she displays the quick-witted crowd work of a seasoned MC.

Anything to do with migration has a political element, and though Shaumaun doesn’t labour the point, it barely needs to be raised. If this is the ordeal for an educated white woman who speaks English and has an immigration lawyer for a pal, whatever this experience must be like for someone without those privileges?

• Abigoliah Schamaun: Legally Cheeky is on at Just The Tonic at The Tron at 6.20pm

Review date: 7 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Tron)