Sara Barron comes onstage to introduce herself as an expat American, still struggling to absorb Britishness, and that this is just a sort of 20 minute informal warm-up before the real show after the interval.
Warm-up, schwarm-up. This turns out to be a fiery intro to the Barron style, with no punches pulled.
She tears into her view of the British, and is merciless at the ghastly twee comments women put on wedding cards, such as “he’s the other half of my puzzle” – with graphics to accompany.
But she gets away with it – and her banter with selected audience members is non-aggressive, clever and very funny, something lesser time-filling comics could look up to.
A brilliant tale of her bizarre marriage proposal from her husband is as far from twee as is humanly possible, and brings neatly to a close what is actually a well-constructed piece of wild comedy.
After the interval, we get more of the same, and much shamelessly detailed sexual language, with moves to match.
There’s enormous energy as she paces and postures her way through in a manner that makes Kathryn Ryan seem immobile, the theme being all about judging people and the satisfying joy to be got from that. “I’m not cruel and judgemental, I’m acerbic and perceptive”.
James Corden; one-night stands; dads versus mums; professional jealousy; all get the treatment – to the extent of dividing the world, including the audience, into heroes and c**ts (fill in your own asterisks).
Altogether an amazing display of how to be obscenely funny, without actually being obscene at all. If Mary Whitehouse were alive to see it, it would probably have killed her. Brilliant.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: *****
