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An Act of Godley: Janey Godley

 
Louise Jones Review by Louise Jones 3 Published: 29 Aug 2016 Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters Show Dates: 4 Aug 2016-28 Aug 2016

A status as Fringe favourite and a viral stint for her infamous “Trump is a cunt” sign at the businessman’s visit to the Trump Turnberry golf resort mean that Janey Godley’s reputation definitely precedes her. If you offend easily, Godley’s certainly not the comedian for you: an apologetic force with a filthy mouth and a skewed perspective on the world, Godley doesn’t invite conversation with her audience. Her stand up is a force of nature, sweeping you along with it - whether you’d like to or not.

Godley’s style won't appeal to everyone – not that she’ll be fussed by that.

Godley has a great rhythm on stage and is comfortable mouthing off about any and every subject, even swinging the odd punch at her own family. She does this to good effect, although sometimes the structure doesn’t feel watertight. Godley moves between segments of her set fairly seamlessly, but the anecdotes themselves can feel a little overlong once the full extent of jokes has been reaped. There’s no strong overarching theme to Godley’s hour, which works very well for her but compared to several hundreds of stand ups who have crafted their material for a theme Godley’s show runs the risk of feeling mismatched.

The uncontested highlight of Godley’s material is her experience protesting against Trump, a fantastic story which has some genuinely shocking moments. Godley’s delivery is matter-of-fact and perfectly suits the ridiculous extents to which the story escalates, pitting Scottish and American attitudes against one another to create a high hit rate on gags. This high return of jokes is fantastic, although it does overshadow some of Godley’s previous material from the hour. There are some excellent one-liners in here, but Godley’s style won't appeal to everyone – not that she’ll be fussed by that. 

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The Blurb:

This award-winning comedian has a comedy show and it is free at The Free Sisters. So come down and enjoy, you don't have to put cash in the bucket if you are skint. ‘The Glasgow Comedy Queen’ (List) ‘Compelling... ballsy... a breath of fresh air’ (Guardian) ‘The most outspoken female stand-up in Britain’ (Daily Telegraph). ‘The greatest British improviser of her generation’ (WhatsOnStage.com). ‘Some of the sharpest-elbowed comedy in the world’ (New York Times). ‘Scotland's funniest woman... the Godmother of Scottish Comedy’ (Scotsman).