Pattison explodes onto the stage in sparkly hot pants, boots and a crop top. It's a high energy introduction during which she barely draws breath, setting the scene for the next hour.
Pattison’s humour is edgy, quick and incredibly insightful
At last year’s Fringe, Pattison relinquished some demons about navigating single life whilst in the throes of a deep depression. This year the performer's life is peachy, and that's what she's focussing her show on. Yet as she exposes a peppy and powerful inner dialogue, she muses that writing comedy about positivity is so much harder than self deprecation - though she is up for the challenge.
Still at the mercy of her mental health, Pattison feels a lot more in control of her life as she comes in hot following the twin accomplishments of completing 6 months working in Australia, and also finding a new boyfriend. Not only that, she can now do a push-up - a success she regales us with alongside some witty repartee about how her emotionally void personal trainer got in touch with his own feelings to support her through her voyage into the world of fitness.
There is a working class edge to Pattison’s humour, and many of her quips explore the juxtaposition of her working class roots and her new life and friends in London. Introducing her boyfriend to ‘working class tapas’, she explores her childhood and ‘poverty wrapped up as a celebration’, creating a space for us to delve deeper into the essentialist nature of issues at the core of working class life today.
Pattison’s humour is edgy, quick and incredibly insightful. However, her own virtuous journey to self-acceptance jars as she narrates a story of confronting a school bully and calling her 'a fat c*%t’. She immediately withdraws from her story and explores whether it’s acceptable to call someone that, when she is ‘all about body positivity and loving yourself’.
Pattison comes to the conclusion that yes, this is acceptable, because she had endured 7 years of torture from the school bully and she had only redirected 7 seconds back. She then further exacerbates the stinging impact of this antithesis to body positivity by saying she received feedback after a previous show that this gag was indeed a step too far, whereupon she showed the complainant a picture of the lady in question - to which they both heartily laughed and agreed on Pattison’s initial sentiment. This really soured for me what had been, up to that point, a charming and lively introspection into life as an average working class person on a journey to self acceptance.
An hour of fast and frantic dialogue, definitely worth seeing. With a bit of maturity and consistency of the messages she's sending out, I imagine Pattison's performance will continue on an upward trajectory.
