You might think you are thick skinned, but this show will re-evaluate your limits. I feel quite comfortable with borderline offensive comedy if done well. Comedians such as Jimmy Carr and Kevin Bridges are personal favourites, yet I left this show feeling offended and upset.
As a starting point it was amusing but I found myself wanting the comedy to move somewhere and stop systematically returning to excessive swearing, sexism and racism.
Emmanuele Martin and Ade Foiadelli start the show by taking turns presenting their material on their own, to varying degrees of success, before finishing with a poorly structured double act.
In what I think was an attempt to parody her own Algerian-French background, Emmanuele Martin’s set consisted predominantly of unimaginative “Frenchie” jokes, punctuated with digs at the English and mildly comic observational humour about being a woman. As a starting point it was amusing but I found myself wanting the comedy to move somewhere and stop systematically returning to excessive swearing, sexism and racism.
Ade Foiadelli then gave what proved to be the best section of the show, giving some relief with his humorous self deprecating brand of comedy. A more experienced performer, he read the mood of the room and tried to steady the ship, giving material about wider political issues rather than the themes of rape and racism we had been exposed to so far. An enthusiastic and charming comedian he was well received despite the shaky ending.
This relief was short lived and Martin regrettably returned to stage and took control, continuing on a surreal one woman mission to tell the most inappropriate joke ever, while Foiadelli attempted to lighten the material with his musical and more physical commentary. This came across as very insular and there was little effective interaction. Inevitably Martin succeeded in her aim to shock, and told such an offensive and poorly judged “joke” about rape which caused a group to get up and leave.
Overall, Ade Foiadelli is a good comedian that has made a poor choice in partner, and unfortunately the main memory of the show will be ‘that’ joke.
