Review: Rosie Jones: I Can't Tell What She's Saying at The Westin

Review by Greg Gorton

As Rosie Jones put it herself, if you don’t know who she is…put on the television. One of the greats of modern British comedy, Jones can pack a house with ease, and it puzzled me why she was not on one of the larger stages of the festival. That said, the audience of the night was one of the best I experienced, perhaps because we were all already fans.

This was Jones’ fourth festival visit. She mentions early in the show that previous visits focussed on living with cerebral palsy and coming to terms with being a lesbian. This visit was to be all about gravy. She wasn’t joking. From her favourite Australian gravy to her willingness to lick gravy off any tits, the liquid that should maybe be a drink was a focus for a short while. Then the night moved to the other kind of gravy - money. Why google thought she was nearly a billionaire, what it was like meeting the royal family, and how she has taken advantage of being “a double threat”. Jones also talks about why she has spent her life single, shows off some very funny impressions, and drools over being in the same room as Cher.

This was my first time seeing Rosie Jones live and she surpassed the expectations I had based on her regular appearances on “8 of 10 cats do countdown” and occasional British galas. Her comedy relies on two main concepts - that she is far more self confident than anyone in the room, and that her cerebral palsy gives her an unfair advantage. The first borders on the comedy of Ricky Gervais but without his arrogance. While she plays at disrespecting her audience, it's all just for a laugh. The second is something over-talked about, but comes down to the advantage of taking your time telling jokes - the subversive punchline is all the harder to anticipate, and hits harder because of it. It does make me wonder about all those comedians who rush through hundreds of jokes an hour. Are they, perhaps, scared that they can’t write the perfect joke like Rosie can?

The title of the night is a bit of a dig at herself, but I’ve never really understood it myself. If you haven’t seen Rosie Jones for more than a clip and are worried about understanding her, then be assured - the conference room microphone is a worse problem than the slight slur to her speech, and your bigger struggle will be understanding a couple of the reference to English celebrities.

I’m a third of the way through my MICF experience and I have to say that, so far, Rosie Jones is at the top of my list and far above second place. For the international stars, Jones is the one you do not want to miss.