Writer: Bee Baumann
A careless misreading of the title might suggest Bee vs. the Village will be a tale of apian mayhem. But Bee, singular, is Bee Baumann, a Black American from Indiana now living in a small town in Germany, and it’s about this that she wants to deliver her stand-up routine for at Camden Fringe. She begins, however, with what feels like tired old material about the experience of being born. Eventually she gets to the heart of her show, what happens when she hits conservative German culture.
Disappointingly, a clear storyline never emerges. 50 minutes is a long time for what feels like a randomly ordered series of anecdotes. We might assume from her tendency to stumble over her words that Bee has come to stand-up later in life, so we’re prepared to cut her some slack. We chuckle whenever she delivers one of her zany puns or good one-liners (there’s a great line about Bach – once she gets over accidentally confusing him with Mozart – only getting well known after his death: ‘he’s decomposing’. Geddit?). But the big laughs rarely come.
It makes you appreciate the skill of established stand-ups, their effortless pacing, their pauses, their quick-witted recoveries when a joke bombs. Baumann isn’t quite there yet. Too often her pauses feel awkward, as if she’s searching around for where to go next and then tries to cover up with a would-be catch phrase: ‘It’s crazy!’
So it’s all the more surprising to discover from Buamann’s publicity material that she sees herself as a comic, a writer and the creator of ‘the Stand-Up Communication Method.’
And it’s also disappointing that her insights into life in a German town lean far too heavily into well-worn cliches. Germans, apparently, like rules and recycling, paperwork and pastries. Well, blow me down! At least there is nothing about sun loungers and beach towels. Her anecdotes don’t feel as if they’re drawn from personal experience: we are never introduced to the Germans she meets or get drawn into aspects of her actual life in the country she has called home for 20 years. We don’t even know if she speaks German. Even insights about being a Black woman don’t amount to much. Perhaps it’s an American thing to err on the side of Ted Lasso-like niceness. But the show could do with a strong dose of British cynicism. And a storyline.
Reviewed on 9 August 2026
Camden Fringe 2026 runs until 30 August
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
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4
