★ ★ ★ ★
Melissa Stephen’s tales of a Southern American upbringing are not for the faint of heart. Being an undiagnosed autistic girl growing up amongst neglectful parents, a poor education and gross boys made for testimony that was too much for some audience members. Yet Melissa treats her life story with such comedic pace and charm, detailing unpalatable home truths that most would prefer to pretend ‘just doesn’t happen in real life’.
I’m glad that Stephen’s rightfully casts herself as the capable, thriving autistic stand-up that she obviously is. Someone who has conquered an uncaring and harsh environment to come out on top.
Her stand-up was peppered with her special interest, namely the tv series Band of Brothers, which resulted in a trip to Normandy. Her slides of that trip are utilised brilliantly throughout the set. As is her interest in plane crashes and black box recordings.
Stephen’s is a great comic with a serviceable hour of material. I felt the tension in the middle-class British audience came from a brash working class American woman talk unashamedly about her heroin addiction, periods and sexuality – It is truly a case of the audience being the wrong fit, not the act. Although many were on side, this isn’t a show of easy laughs, but of a cumulative experience, one that is valuable and original.
Stephen’s ends her hour by reading out audience members most embarrassing childhood events. I must confess that I was the boy who fell on the fence; something that caused a huge shriek from everyone in that shipping container-cum-venue and ended the set on a fitting shock of revelation.
Melissa Stephens: HOT DOGS & TEARS Assembly Rooms – Powder Room 19:40 (1hr) Aug 9 -14, 16-27 £12/11 14+
