Writer: Kelly Bachman
Kelly Bachman could have been a comedian who achieved 15 minutes of fame and then slipped away unnoticed in 2019, were it not for the fact that the event that brought her to attention was a stand-up show in New York where Harvey Weinstein, then awaiting trial on multiple rape charges, was in the audience. Bachman addressed the elephant in the room, speaking as a rape survivor as well as someone who was not prepared to ignore his presence at the private event.
Her jokes, along with a visceral verbal assault on Weinstein by Zoe Stuckless, an actor who was in the audience, found its way on to Facebook and YouTube and then on to the news in America and worldwide. The incident is now largely forgotten, or, to a lot of people, never known about in the first place, but Bachman is not someone who wants to be a footnote in someone else’s story.
Her Edinburgh Fringe debut incorporates the moment that took her beyond the New York comedy circuit, but does not make it its centrepiece. She had a life before and after it and is not prepared to be defined by it.
Determined not to play into a media stereotype of what a rape survivor should be, the opening covers typical American stand-up topics ranging from her family, her younger sister, Catholic guilt, fake personas on social media and pranks she used to play in school. There are hints of what is to come, which adds an extra tension to the comedy, but the sharp swerve from a last prank into the first reference to sexual assault is all the more effective for being unexpected.
As the set continues, she takes the audience further away from any comfort zones, but also shows that she is an expert in comic timing and delivering dark punchlines. Her slow classic New York stand-up style of delivery means that if you close your eyes, you can easily imagine you are sitting in a comedy club in Manhattan looking across at a group of male comics, unsure of how to respond to what she has just said.
It’s a show that deserves to be seen from a comedian who knows how to turn the darkest material into something that never loses its power but also never forgets what stand-up can and should be.
Runs until 25 August 2024 | Image: Contributed
The Reviews Hub Score
Powerfully funny
