Pattie Brewster is a normal girl desperately in need of three things: friends, cat food and a crash course in Microsoft PowerPoint. Or at least that’s what her creator, Amy Hoggart, would have us believe. Brewster is Hoggart’s stage foil – an amusingly deranged and needy cat-lady who writes self-help guides – and it would be an effective character if it weren’t so ingrained in cliché.
The uses of slideshow and film to augment the performance were initially promising – as a YouTube personality, Hoggart clearly has skill when it comes to comedy filmmaking and consequently the highlights of the show were the video segments. However, her use of slides throughout bogged down her delivery and comic timing, especially during the transitions between stand-up and multimedia sections. There’s nothing funny about watching someone read jokes out from a monitor and Hoggart seems to have simultaneously underestimated the potential of a good on-screen gag whilst relying on her slideshow as a crutch.
For all Hoggart’s enthusiasm in the role, her performance was dragged down by laboured delivery and weak gags. Brewster is too ham-fisted a vehicle to deliver anything innovative and the show relies too heavily on Pattie’s manic, pixyish demeanour and cat jokes. Hoggart’s cause would have been greatly aided by better crowd participation but her opening salvo failed to spark any enthusiasm from the crowd. It took her until at least halfway through her routine to break through the stoicism of the audience.
Ultimately, Pattie Brewster is quite a dull character – overplayed and laboured by her creator – and stretched too thinly over the course of an hour.
