Richard Lutz watches one of Britain’s better comediennes earn her keep.
About a third of the way through Sara Pascoe’s stint at Birmingham’s Glee Club, the nightmare for any entertainer.
There was a gasp, the fall of a body at the back of the crowd and the houselights splashed on. The intimacy was gone just as she was really starting to find her groove and the words from the PA: “Is there a doctor in the house?”
Someone had collapsed and the Essex funny girl was in the stage spotlight, on her own, unable to do anything but chew up time as the ill woman lay on the floor. Her self effacing chirpy script gone, she had to keep her act going for an unknown amount of time as the patient was taken care of.
Sara handled it admirably, taking a Q&A session (“Do you have a cat?”) while keeping half an eye on the cluster of people trying to help the patient.
And her shtick is fun: observational, engaging, cheekily from a woman’s vantage point whether she is talking about a perv in a wheelchair, body hair or…here we go..the universal failings of menfolk (many of them pretty close to the mark).
It’s a bright breezy show, some smut to give it an edge (I would say 18 and over for the live show) and a bit of Platonic philosophy (what is Good?) to charm the pointy-heads in the crowd.
So, well done Ms Pascoe. She’s worth the price of a ticket.
Her tour continues through the month: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/sara-pascoe
