2011 Edinburgh Fringe
Mary Bourke review
Let's concentrate on the positives first. Mary Bourke opens with a little bit of observational material to start things off. Her topics include a teenage boy's idea of humour and 'Balamory racism', both funny topics. She also goes into a few outrageous off-the-wall rants: one in particular of note being a hardcore, long-winded, offensive, not-pausing-for-breath rage about the women on Mumsnet... on the day of this review, the comedian found a member of that website right in front of her face, which added some extra tension to the situation but fortunately paid off. Bourke also did a good job of ripping into Dan Brown's book The Lost Symbol. Simple in idea, but very well executed.
While Bourke's deadpan delivery makes a fair alternative to the zany, high energy comics who overrun the Festival, it just didn't seem to have the impact that it could have had at times, even though the material is there. There are often moments in the show where it lulls, but Bourke does tend to reprieve herself by throwing in a quick wisecrack or one-liner.
One of the, well, how can I put this... weird moments in the show on the date of this review involved a father in the front row getting out a notepad, as he wanted to draw the performer. Bourke, of course, had the right to ask him to stop as it was rather odd. His daughter eventually confiscated the pen and handed it to Bourke, only for the worried man to exclaim that was a "very expensive pen." What comes a worry is that while this wasn't part of the show, I remember this more than some of Bourke's jokes.
Elsewhere in the show, the comedian plays a Twitter game with the audience called Tweet or Delete. A few jokes bombed but some were very good. This section of the show, however, only lasted about five minutes... and the jokes were written on beer mats.
In summary, Mary Mary Quite Contrary contains a number of good one-liners and off the wall rants but, to me, not enough to sustain larger appeal. One of the best punchlines in the show came from a heckler in a story she was telling... not a good sign when a heckle is funnier that the material around it.
Personally, and summing up in 140 characters or less: "I believe this show had a more deletes than it did tweets."
(As a side note; the originally listed one hour show actually lasted around 40 minutes)
Mary Mary Quite Contrary listing