Laura Davis – Cake in the Rain

Australian comedian Laura Davis makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut after a stand-up career ten years strong, and her experience shows in her show Cake In The Rain. We are welcomed into the intimate venue with her on stage casually scrolling through her iPhone to play us music, silently nodding along with the occasional small smile for her audience. When the doors are shut Davis humbles the experience by pointing out the backstage area is a little curtain she could hide behind to make a big entrance, and we could all play along in welcoming her to the stage in style.

For those of us up in drizzly, wet Edinburgh this year; Davis is the cake shop that’ll keep you going.

The audience made Davis work hard for laughs, and she was certainly vocal about how hard she was trying! She is clearly comfortable up on stage, and she was not discouraged. She powers through her set, dipping in and out of creepy encounters with strangers, backwards Australian laws, and her unique ability to attract lost souls. Charming the audience slowly with her awkwardness, she is rewarded with cackles and guffaws, spurring her further into larey tangents.

Towards the end of the show, Davis confides that she systematically thinks about killing herself every twenty-five minutes - she can’t help it - and that it actually make her happy. Each time she contemplates suicide, the comedian searches for the little things in life that keep her going. Like the cake shop on the corner of her road. For those of us up in drizzly, wet Edinburgh this year; Davis is the cake shop that’ll keep you going.

Refreshingly frank, Davis criticises herself and bolsters herself up all at once, providing an effectively human, hilarious hour with a stand-up comedian who appears to be incredibly down-to-earth, which (let’s be honest) is so rarely seen at the Edinburgh Fringe.