Meryl O’Rouke is worried about being a bad mother. You can see why as she explains how she was brought up, as O’Rouke journeys through her life with us. This starts from the worryingly unique feeling of being the only child of an Irish Catholic father and a German Jewish mother (‘Nobody could tell me that this parenting was not normal’), to her teenage self only allowed to leave the house to stalk D-list celebrities. Now she finds herself with a young daughter of her own and clueless. O’Rouke’s delivery and comic timing are impeccable and her persona has an excellent mix of bitter adult and youthful fun as she relates her stories well to all ages of the audience. The comic even seemed pleasant when she called a teenage girl in the front row a b***h for ‘heckling her with her long skinny waxed legs’.It was just as well she is likable. Asking the audience to find humour in some very dark material, she tells the tale of her Mother’s escape from Nazi Germany. The fact she felt she must continually apologise for these dark stories is a little disconcerting. It was certainly these jokes which were the most hit and miss with the audience.O’Rouke insists that it’s necessary that we have these stories so that we can fully understand her mother. Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually explain at all why her show-biz obsessed mum would take her daughter out every weekend to sit outside the doors of minor celebrities. This is, without a doubt, the most amusing material of the show and it is a shame O’Rouke dwells for so long on stories which, although exceedingly interesting, could not get the audience laughing.O’Rouke is someone to look out for. Her refreshing style, comic timing and relatable musings about people is something that you don’t come across every day. On top of this, her hilarious family is certainly something that you wouldn’t want to come across every day.
