post by @nataliagresty

Seen by Natalia at Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the 9th of August 2024

3 stars – the jokes were written but weren’t delivered

The Canadian comedian Zoe Brownstone presents us with a hour-long collection of jokes and anecdotes covering her desire for a 90’s rom-com style meet-cutes, her Jewishness, her drug-selling past, getting deported from the Netherlands after her Dutch (meet-cute!) boyfriend quickly dumps her, and feeling out of place in a country “full of tall tens” before moving to London. “This country is so broken that I fit right in, through the cracks!”

Brownstone’s set is full of punchlines, witty stories and movie references; at one point, she determines to prove that every movie is really a romantic comedy, even Jaws. She’s quick to respond to the audience but as she meanders from the film chat to her hedonistic parents’ drug use, her Jewishness and general feeling of being slightly lost, a larger structure is hard to find. She goes back and forth, promising to “get back to that story” and “just wait for the ending”.

However, throughout the many scattered jokes, it is her energy that’s lacking the most. It might be that the small room is only half-full, it could be that slumpy mid-week gig, it might also be that 60 minutes are simply just a lot to fill. We see short bouts of her quick-wit confidence here and there, especially when caught off-guard, but most of the time, she seems slightly tired of trying to sell herself. Fortunately for her and potentially unfortunately for her comedy, not that many other catastrophes have happened to her besides the truly traumatic dump and subsequent visa loss which made her ever more of a hopeless romantic, the ultimate comedian’s source of tales of bad dates and delusions. However, the Fringe fest is not a 100 metre sprint but a sprint in the length of a marathon, and that takes a toll on the necessary energy that can make the same joke on paper sound fantastic or subpar.

31st July – 23rd August; 7.15 pm

Running time: 60 minutes

Venue: Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker Three

Tickets and Info: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/zoe-brownstone-a-bite-of-yours 

Company Website: https://www.impatientproductionsuk.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoebrownstone