From exes to golf coaches, Just a Normal Girl Who Enjoys Revenge is an eloquent, biting and well-structured analysis of situations when Hannah Fairweather was right and when she was wronged. And like a well-dressed vigilante, her jokes are drawn sharp enough to kill a man.
There is nothing Fairweather does better than revenge
Fairweather has a very open and friendly personality, so it does come across that she is just chatting. With frequent tangents, we learn more about the experiences and run-ins with people that shaped her as a professional. Her overall demeanour is perhaps the main reason the show is quite unexpected, and Fairweather's stylistic approach depends on the subversion of stereotypes in order to drive her points home. It is common to see the odd point about the treatment of female comedians in stand-up, but Fairweather takes it a step further by making it a thematic undercurrent of her show. By exploring the professional as deeply as the personal, Fairweather takes a step towards becoming a voice for her generation because of how she refuses to let herself and her comedy be defined by stereotypes and expectations, thought she acknowledges how accurate a blueprint they can be, as is the case with South Carolina. In this show, Fairweather imparts important life advice in the continuous way she makes one painfully true point about the nature of professional relationships while desensitizing us to this reality by airing her grievances in such a matter of fact, almost debate-style takedown.
The narrative’s exasperated, ‘Can you believe this?’ tone often pushes through more than the humour at times, but Fairweather keeps a quick pace full of witty remarks that make precise observations, giving us a high dose of reality over exaggeration that some stand-ups rely on. Fairweather lets us know what to expect, but only in the end does the circular nature of the show reveal the hidden depths of Fairweather’s comedy. She very cleverly drops hints for us along the way, allowing us to build the picture up ourselves, which doesn’t stop when she deviates in her list of red underlined names to muse about facets in her overall storytelling arc.
Considering this show is Fairweather’s Fringe debut, on the surface comparing herself to Taylor Swift could be perceived as arrogant, but this show proves that such a comparison is remarkably accurate. The wit, wordplay, and subject of Just a Normal Girl Who Enjoys Revenge suggests that this show would easily fit into Taylor’s Swift’s existing discography.
Just a Normal Girl Who Enjoys Revenge has brought down the walls that have held
Fairweather back. The heartbreak caused by disillusionment in a professional relationship is a surprisingly unmined areas and is an interesting adaptation and circumvention of expectations on the part of Fairweather. Hopefully those on the list will take an introspective look at what they made her do because it turns out there is nothing Fairweather does better than revenge.
