★★★
As soon as you walk into ‘Just the Bottle Room’, you’re greeted with a washing line with pegged on signs. Intriguing hand-written titles such as ‘Queer as Tuna’ and ‘I am not Kathy Bates’, give you a feeling of what could possibly transpire.
Enter Catherine McCafferty, and confident, brash and likeable Midwestern Gal whose delivery wouldn’t be out of place on a rerun of The Tonight Show. She’s thoroughly American, and it’s wonderful. Often US acts at the fringe either double-down on a persona, or are over-apologetic. Catherine goes straight for a dissection of the female experience, in a way that seemed refreshing and cathartic.
Each ‘chapter’ of her story was short and snappy, and involved personal topics such as bereavement, trauma and sexual assault. It’s not easy subject matter, but I applauded McCafferty’s fearlessness, and holding the space for these topics. The delivery veered more into performance or spoken word than comedy, and actually pitching it as stand-up, does the hour a disservice. These disparate stories from Catherine’s life can sometimes feel jarring and little out of place, but it does all come together.
The final moments of the show are beautiful and authentic. I could see the audience really resonate with what McCafferty is doing. So I would say, as a stand-up show, it’s disjointed and sometimes unrooted, but as a piece of storytelling, it’s powerful and accomplished.
Catherine McCafferty: (not) that bad is on at Just the Tonic at the Mash House till August 25th
