Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Manifestation is the idea that if you want something, all you need do is ask the universe, and she shall provide. 

Well, the lines of communication seem to have failed Erin Farrington – because if the American comic was hoping a show might just appear out of nowhere, she was very much mistaken. 

She takes to the stage as a practitioner of this new age woo-woo and gets us to meditate using breathing exercises, imagining ourselves in a rowing boat on a lake… before the mental imagery takes a sudden darker turn. And then we’re back in the room.

So far, so so-so. However that was pretty much the only bit of material in a ‘show’ that ran for less that half its advertised hour (so at least we can be thankful for small mercies).

For the rest of the 20-something minutes, Farrington did what could possibly be called crowd work, but with the novel twist of not including any jokes or amusing comments in her replies.  Genuine exchange with a charity worker: ‘What makes a good charity?’ ‘One with good governance’ ‘Great.’  I had a more interesting conversation in the queue to get in than this, which had all the thrills of small talk over the coffees before a business seminar no one wants to be at.

Fun fact: the top line of Farrington’s bio describes her as an improviser.

The crowd was sparse, so she had to spend ages on every one of this awkward, pointless conversations. When they were over, she got the audience member to shuffle a deck of tarot cards and pick one, whereupon she consulted a book to see what it meant and somehow linked it back to their earlier chat. Three tedious times she did this – and no, the third did offered no subversion of the pattern as comedy theory dictates. 

Then she was prompted by the tech to perform a song, having forgotten to set it up earlier. We leave, confused about what we have seen.

The show went up almost 20 minutes late, after talk of a possible cancellation, so the most generous explanation is that tech issues kept her from doing the show she intended and instead chose to do this. No such excuse was offered, but there must surely be SOME reason for such an unprepared, slapdash show taking a coveted Pleasance slot.

Review date: 9 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard