After a bumper month at the Fringe last year Jayde Adams comes to a new venue with her latest comedy offering
The point of Adams show was to be her true self, to stop giving a shit about what anyone else thinks, and to have fun.
To start, the positives. This is my third experience of Jayde Adams’ comedy and so much of what I have loved, and returned for year-after-year is still here and ready to blow the socks off of those uninitiated to Adam’s style. She is a wonderful character actress, her turns of phrases and her expressions light up all of her material. She is the definition of innately funny, with excellent comic timing and a brand of physical comedy both unique and exceptional. She patters away with the audience fluently and with charm, even when tearing any unlucky sod that crosses her apart. This year’s show, as always, includes a little audience interaction. A woman is called up from the front row to take part in a “Best Friend Test” with Adams. It’s always a nice touch bringing people on stage and has become something of a signature in Jayde’s shows, and comes off with effect. It also sets Jayde up to do a few of the things she does best – excellent prop comedy, funny physicality and voices, and creating a nice running gag for the rest of the hour.
Like last year Jayde’s piece is like a section of her memoirs, ruminating on some theme from her past. This year it is friendship. As always she spins a heart-panging story, and she can certainly engage the empathy of her audience. However, unlike last year’s offerings it sits in the morose for too long, leaving you feeling a little deflated at the end of the hour. The story lacks sufficient structure; it feels on more than one occasion that we have got to the end of the show when we haven’t and rambling off into tangents that don’t fit the narrative it seems she is building.
When the show does end it feels a little unsatisfactory. There are a number of musical interludes, which again is common with Jayde’s other shows, but this time is feels a little contrived. Jayde has a beautiful voice, but a couple of the numbers felt like fillers. A lot of the time indeed feels ‘filled in’, as if there wasn’t quite enough good material for a full hour.
The point of Adams show was to be her true self, to stop giving a shit about what anyone else thinks, and to have fun. If the show is Adams’ truth then I’m glad she said it, and that we were there to listen. But if you’re looking for a night of uproarious stand-up, or you are previously acquainted with her style perhaps Jayded might leave you feeling a little, well, jaded.
