Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Anyone who’s reached early middle age and wondered what their 18-year-old self would think of them now will find much to relate to in Louise Leigh’s new show, a cleverly written and continuously funny hour, in which every word and gesture more than earns its place.

As a fiftysomething mother of teens, Leigh has a lorry-load of laugh-out-loud stories, observations and metaphors about the loop of life, comparing how things were for her then and now and chatting about how a mid-life crisis might manifest in a woman. 

The physical stuff about the menopause is brilliant, from vivid climate-change similes to demonstrations of forgetting important stuff when your brain prioritises the need to remember all the words to the Gino Ginelli advert. (Yeah, you’re singing it now too, aren’t you?) 

Equally delicious is her material about what an archaeologist would say about her body after a recent ‘girls’ weekend’ resulted in group piercings at Claire’s Accessories, and references to the mundanity of a warm nipple.

Leigh knows exactly how much to take the mickey out of herself and her subjects (members of a swimming club being 'a broth of pricks' is a line worth appropriating), and provides some vivid insight into how difficult it is to flirt to accordion music when your only contact with boys at school is at Highland dancing events.

She acknowledges that her upbringing didn’t equip her to parent 21st-Century teens, but it sounds like she’s doing a brilliant job. 

Despite covering areas that several acts have discussed in the past, Distracted feels fresh, loving and full of hope. It’s a big-hearted and laugh-heavy rallying call to seize life, delivered by a naturally funny woman who’s been around for long enough to know what matters. 

Review date: 20 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Ashley Davies
Reviewed at: Just the Tonic at Cabaret Voltaire