Review by Lucy Holz
Grace Campbell is an absolute scream. She barrels onto stage through a cloud of haze, jumping up and down to the cries of her whooping fans. Her choice of top for the evening is not ideal, with the audience getting a full view of her completely popping out in her excitement. But if anything, the frequent nip slips perfectly suit the tone of the show, adding a little extra pizazz for the Sunday night audience.
It’s comedy for the girlies and man do the girlies love it. Campbell takes us through a tumultuous period of her life, beginning with her choice to get a dog who, much like the comedian herself, is on heat.
Campbell knows her audience inside out, playing directly to those of us who have slept with a musician (guilty), been told they needed to shave their legs (guilty), or had paparazzi trying to get pictures of them doing drugs to sell to the papers and bring down the Labour government (not guilty but I can empathise).
Campbell has created a sleek hour of riotous comedy, with every aspect of her performance honed to meticulous perfection. Her graphic descriptions and wild stories elicit squeals of delight from the audience, she has us all eating out of the palm of her hand.
As the show progresses we hear more about Campbell’s sexual exploits, and her frequent use of the morning after pill. After one man isn’t honest about how their sexual experience played out, Campbell finds herself pregnant and decides to get an abortion.
It’s hard not to feel manipulated when Campbell pretends to break down in tears when describing the experience of being shown the foetus on an ultrasound, only to smugly raise her face to the audience and reveal she was just faking it. Having felt so much empathy for Campbell in that moment, it was embarrassing to realise I had actually been on the brink of real tears for a woman fake crying to try and make her show ‘award-winning’.
Fortunately, Campbell does get candid about the experience and the show finishes on an authentic note, appealing to the men of the world to do better. Campbell knows exactly what her fanbase wants and boy does she give it to them.
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