Kerry Godliman review

Kerry Godliman is in the damp room of the Pleasance Hut this year, and she does try to make the best of the situation. She starts the show by warmly greeting everyone in a fairly relaxed and assured manner. Clearly she is a good communicator, and you feel quite safe in her hands. However, it does become clear that Godliman still has a bit to learn in some areas in relation to the craft of stand-up. For instance, she hands a couple of electric fans to audience members which is a great thing for those two people, but a great annoyance for everyone else. Although this may seem inconsequential, it is small things like this which add up to give a picture of a stand-up's progression.

The show starts with an introduction to the theme of 'Wonder Woman', and one could be forgiven for sighing at such a generalised title. The start is fairly comfortable with the tone for the show set well, but I found that, after about twenty minutes, the show did begin to flag. There was too much idle chitter chatter which had a lack of real laugher points. It felt often that you were listening to an entertaining person in the pub. That's all very well and good, but when presenting a show you need to offer that extra bit more, and I'm just not sure if Godliman offered enough. Comedic techniques that were adopted were also overused, which meant the audience were quite often ahead of the game.

As the show progressed Godliman did pick up the pace a bit however, as time passed, it felt more and more like nervous energy. She began racing through every line and every word in a bit of a frenzy. Although this could be seen to fit with the progression of the piece, the ascend into race was a little too abrasive. If more time was given in these later stages for the audience to digest the material, then this would make the hour feel much more comfortable.

I enjoyed the stories about hospital and childhood, but found that the observational interjections were added mainly for filler. There was a sense that the hour was a bit of a struggle to fill and, even with this comedy equivalent of packaging foam, the show did come in under time. Ultimately, it just had the feeling of being not quite ready. Kerry Godliman is a good performer and certainly has the capabilities of presenting a very good show. But this year's offering isn't really it.

---

Kerry Godliman - Wonder Woman listing