Amidst the moustachioed revolutionaries that don the walls of Viva Mexico restaurant, Kate Smurthwaite takes the mic for a thought-provoking hour of comedy. She blends anecdote, social commentary and the political with a perfect balance of intelligent and wit, making her an invaluable contribution to the female stand up scene. Taking care to interact with the audience, she has won us over early on in the performance.
Oozing confidence and character, the personable Smurthwaite provides a delightfully riotous, politically infused, eye-opening hour of stand up.
Smurthwaite’s reputation precedes her. Known as feminist, atheist and pro-abortionist it is easy to predict the topics around which her stand up will revolve. These political ideals all feature in News at Kate: Leftie Cock Womble, but not necessarily in the ways that one might have expected; her militancy is indirect as she addresses the response that the media has had towards her because of her unwavering defence of these ideas.
Quite the personality, Smurthwaite unpretentiously shares with us the behind the scenes of shows such as Question Time. From Nuts magazine, to the Daily Mail and even the Guardian, Smurthwaite has a bone to pick with the media. Aided by a slideshow she reveals misleading headlines and ridiculous ones, as well as instances of statistical extrapolation and language manipulation.
Smurthwaite combines discussion of current affairs with more general musings on language. For example, taking the term ‘freedom of speech’ and showing how radically differently it can be understood by personalities such as Frankie Boyle on the one hand, and by political activists such as Raif Badawi that are suffering imprisonment for exercising theirs on the other. She goes on to contrast the human claim to freedom of speech with advertising’s exercise of an inexplicit ‘right to lie’. Her insightful examination of social priorities is always witty and accessible, managing to avoid preachy didacticism.
In a particularly entertaining part of the show, Smurthwaite enumerates the topics that she had censored from herself as a female comedian up until this point. She shares with us the trials and tribulations that she, as a woman and a stand up comedian, has suffered through and beaten off to have her voice heard.
Oozing confidence and character, the personable Smurthwaite provides a delightfully riotous, politically infused, eye-opening hour of stand up.
