As women get older, they become invisible. So says Joanne McNally during her new Fringe show, The Prosecco Express.
That might be true, but tonight a single female comic in her – shock horror – mid thirties is holding court in a room of people, being unbearably funny, and pulling no punches. But that probably shouldn’t feel as strangely satisfying as it does.
The show derives its name from its creator now spending a significant portion of her time downing Prosecco at various weddings, children’s christenings and communions. But never her own – much to her mother’s chagrin.
Make no mistake, this is a darkly savage show. But its darkness comes merely in the form of no-holds-barred truths. From the boyfriend who told her his ideal woman was “her but with a mild brain injury” to living in her mother’s attic after they broke up (“my friends called me ‘Joanne Frank’”) it all has a ring of unabashed honesty to it. About society as much as about the comedian herself.
Why does a woman stay with a man who breaks up with them fifteen times and describes doing it up the bum as “intimate”? Why is a spinster aunt eternally referred to as ‘Aunt Mary-never married-never-had-kids’ all in one breath? Is it really just a choice between – as she puts it bluntly at one stage – “being married and a bit bored” or “single and a bit lonely”?
McNally’s humour is that superior type of stand-up comedy; the one that makes you think as well as laugh... a lot.
There’s no duff moments; it’s all gold. From weddings in fields of heather with people drinking out of jam jars to her mother saying, “I heard you get up in the night. No wonder you can’t sleep when you’ve no pension”.
The comic also touches on her adoption as a baby, accidentally drinking two litres of Baileys on a plane and the fact that the only way she’ll ever be able to afford her a house is to “f*ck her way to it”. She’s a millennial with single-mid-thirties-female problems. But don’t worry, she says. Her eggs are still good.
Though the show no doubt contains some exaggerated versions of the truth, it’s McNally’s general refusal to be anything but searingly honest that makes it soar high above the comedy of many of her peers.
She never pretends to be a perfect principled feminist. She is just herself. But she defeats all the demons with a simple weapon: the cold hard truth. In a sexist, keeping up appearances society, McNally’s brave and brutal honesty is her exacting a painfully funny revenge.
The Prosecco Express runs until Sunday 15 September at Smock Alley Theatre. Tickets are available online.
