Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Kate Dolan is extra. She bounds on stage in a bright pink jumpsuit, shaking what her mama gave her and owning that space like it’s always been hers.

A huge personality from a small village in the Midlands, she builds this show around a scenario involving an expensive notepad she’s shoplifted. (Her vivid and achingly funny description of the goblinesque crime offers some reassurance that malfeasance wasn’t actually involved in the acquisition of the item.)

Dipping into references to her stationery kink, she introduces us to the notepad, which is studded with rhinestones, and has been accessorised with long legs and heels. 

Throughout the show, she riffs on the inspirational quotes the notepad contains, often breaking into song and dance in the process. One of the funniest numbers is a breakdance to a tender charity ad-style voiceover about comedians doing shows about a dead parent. She has actually lost her mother, who clearly had a similar sense of humour, but deals with this on stage in a gloriously unusual manner.

The first of her family to go to university, Dolan treats us to a stunning piece she devised in response to a drama class brief to come up with something on the theme of ‘struggle’. The breakneck rap song, My Rescue Dog’s A Dickhead, wasn’t quite what the teacher was expecting.

We hear some fun stories about her job in a call centre where, to the surprise of nobody in this room, she was top of the sales board, and also took great delight in taunting her boss. It’s hard to imagine any mundane job being able to contain or satisfy her huge personality.

Another song, Big Old Baps, will stay with you for days, as will her musings on gentle parenting and small-town nicknames.

If you’re after a low-key, laid-back stand-up this is emphatically not the show for you. But if it’s a thrilling and authentic blast of entertainment from a future star, look no further. Kate Dolan: remember her name.

Review date: 19 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Ashley Davies
Reviewed at: Assembly George Square