Rachel Fairburn starts her set in chatty fashion, telling us how odd she finds Bath (lots of comics do that one) and about her first tour, which this is.
But she soon settles into ranting in a manner that justifies the title of the show. She is a maniac, she claims, but she’s got manners (she hasn’t) and keeps it to herself (she doesn’t).
There follows a series of high-energy blistering attacks on many things: the crap people put about themselves on social media; the government; the audience; the middle class in general; the venue (which doesn’t feel quite right, she says, but doesn’t know why) – but most enjoyable of all is her riffing on “intrusive thoughts”, ie what people, herself very much included, are really thinking while saying something else.
It gets more and more extreme, and funnier and funnier: what the Queen’s sexual thoughts about David Attenborough might be, for instance; or exactly how she’d like to kill her boyfriend’s ex, while smiling politely at her.
Fairburn has unerring accuracy at locating the funny bone in all this, which despite the sweary apparent rage is never less than hilarious.
Altogether a very satisfying farrago of comedy vitriol that has its audience rocking with laughter throughout.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: ****
