Emma McAlpine enjoys the confident eccentricity of this rising comedy star's new show.
Lou Sanders is awesome and she’s going to teach you how to be awesome. At least that’s the premise of the show but as she admits, the content has little to do with the title. Instead, what we get is an endearingly ramshackle hour of stunts, videos, audience interaction, a dabble of character comedy and a story or two about her childhood.
From the minute she begins, you know you’re in safe hands. “I know what you’re thinking. How can someone so fit be so funny?” This mock arrogance runs throughout the show and is just one of the likeable quirks to her character. Like a British Kristen Schaal, she has a winning combination of eccentricity and confidence. She apologises for saying “every little thing that pops into my head” yet this is what adds so much personality to the show. Some of the biggest laughs come from her asides like “Sorry I just snotted over myself there” or “Can I just say – I’m still really out of breath from earlier!” She’s unashamedly honest and forthright without being intimidating, the kind of girl you want to know better.
There are plenty of inventive ideas here: she reads out some letters that have been delivered during the show from people commenting on how she’s doing and does some clever video pieces with the audience. Her props also add a homemade charm: my favourite being a ridiculous ‘prankster hat’ she spent a whole day making with pictures of ‘all the best pranksters’ on it (yes – Beadle was there). With a clothes line to the right of the stage with such random items hanging on it as a fake ponytail and a plastic pigeon called Dr Spinky, you really feel like you’re being let into a surreal, yet cosy world, of which Sanders is the deranged gatekeeper.
Not all of it works. Some of the punchlines fall flat, a couple of her more childish jokes irritate and her storytelling could do with a polish. She also does a pastiche of a new stand-up called Kerry P, trotting out all the comedic cliches of Facebook material, shocking smut, nostalgia and repetition; but it’s now a gag you come across all too often on the circuit, and it slightly undermines her individuality.
While the material isn’t quite there yet, I leave in no doubt that Lou Sanders is awesome indeed. A unique voice, with an enjoyably silly outlook on life, she’s surely one of the most exciting new comics to emerge from the 2011 Fringe. I can’t wait to see more.
Lou Sanders: How to be Awesome: An Introduction is at the Gilded Balloon at 5pm until the 29th August
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