The Yurt Locker is naturally intriguing as a venue and thus when the three performers of Cracking Yolks took to the stage they were playing to an almost full house of casual punters bearing pints, a turn of events that caught them somewhat off guard: ‘Are you all here to see us? Awesome!’ It’s indicative of the very casual atmosphere that helped keep the audience on side throughout a comedy hour that had its moments but ultimately raised fewer laughs than it could have.
After a wobbly opening skit that went down awkwardly and didn’t quite succeed in setting the tone, Jo Ogden took the first stand up set. Her material was heavily rooted in self-deprecation with plenty of “crazy cat lady” jokes and a few digs at her own appearance. There wasn’t anything new about what Jo was doing but it was well executed enough and she got in a few memorable punchlines. Ruth Bruce was up second, with a more whimsical and playful set. While her affable manner made her a likeable stage presence, her material was probably the weakest of the three, with some fairly routine observations and a couple of jokes that failed to land. To Ruth’s credit, she rode these pauses well and didn’t let them kill the momentum. No comedian is immune to having to deal with the aftermath of a bad joke and she handled it with class. Final act Nena Edwards came as something of a surprise, given that she followed two fairly gentle sets with an opening soliloquy devoted to her genitals. Though the material was unpolished, and some segments worked better than others, she gave it her all and mostly kept the audience enthused.
Cracking Yolks is not an excellent or groundbreaking piece of comedy, nor is it really a bad one. The skits that bookend the show feel forced, and the first-day audience I sat with didn’t seem to know where to put themselves while watching them. The performers are clearly talented, and I suspect it is the sort of show that will improve as they grow into their material. For the moment though, the show’s potential remains untapped.
