★★★★★
When you’re as well-known as Rosie Jones, you can be trapped by the expectations of your persona. Jones has been a popular face on television for a number of years now. But her cheeky on-screen antics, leaves you unprepared for the thrust of her stand-up. It’s ironic that that the nastiest thing her online haters can come up with is that she’s not funny. A subjective idea surely, and one that is levelled at any popular comedian who doesn’t fit the shape of a straight cis man in a t-shirt.
Rosie’s stand-up is impressive, and it’s dark and angry. Her opening gag “I’m gay and disabled, which means I’m first in line, for the concentration camp” was met with a number of gasps. I feel Jones has to battle against the perception of a disabled stand-up being cutesy or pitied, which means she has to play on hard-mode in the crafting of her hour.
Perhaps it’s a shock for people to hear the hate Rosie gets online, and how people treat her. The ignorance of people thinking, just because you’re famous, doesn’t mean you aren’t subject to the structural ableism in our society.
But she’s never a victim, her northern sensibilities would never allow that, and a big part of the show is a big ‘fuck off’ to anyone who tries to paint her as such.
Rosie’s development as a stand-up continues. She’s created one of her best hours of stand-up, that’s very funny, but also has a strong message, that we need to resist the fascism that has crept into our society.
