Comedy for the weekend: Funny and philosophical - Sarah Kendall, One-Seventeen, Soho Theatre
18/05/2018
It is a show that rolls along with laughs but leaves you with a warm fuzzy glow and a feeling that everything will be OK.
Australian Sarah Kendall (Writers' Guild Best Radio Comedy 2018) is a storyteller, a philosopher and very funny. Or to put it another way, she made me laugh and she made me think... and she made me think about Hamlet.
Photo by Rosalind Furlong
You see, in Shakespeare’s play the Prince Hamlet says: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Which is pretty much her dad’s way of looking at life. Her mother is the opposite and sees danger everywhere. Everywhere.
Aussie self-deprecation
Kendall’s routine explores this idea of glass half full/glass half empty thinking using stories from her life - growing up, being grown up, her family and friends.
Of course, it is served up with the familiar Aussie self-deprecation, sarcasm and dark humour.
She is one of those comedians that can cleverly tell one longer story while peeling off shorter stories at the same time.
They are ordinary stories and anecdotes that demonstrate the silliness and absurdity of human behaviour.
“There are so few actions in this life that can rescue a cat and a marriage at the same time.”
Photo by Rosalind Furlong
There is a familiarity in the foibles, personal ticks, behaviour and outlook. We laugh because these traits and scenarios are silly and funny, really funny but also because we know that we have our own collection of foibles and absurdities in our lives.
Pregnant humour
The humour is pregnant with ideas - philosophy or perhaps even therapy. Kendall's stories are funny because she recognises the irrationality and ridiculousness of her behaviour and of those around her but she takes lessons from it building to a poignant final story.
It is a show that rolls along with laughs but leaves you with a warm fuzzy glow and a feeling that everything will be OK. I'm giving it five stars.
Catch it at the Soho Theatre this weekend (finishes May 19) and then on tour in June: Norwich, Coventry, York, Richmond, Bradford, Birmingham, Brighton, Canterbury, Reading, Colchester, Swindon and Winchester. (Tour details here.)