Sarah Kendall: A Day in October

A Day in October centres around Kendall’s teenage years at a rough high-school in Newcastle, Australia. Kendall at this point is far from the confident comedian we see before us; she has acne all across her face, her weird dreams have even her therapist befuddled and her main objective is to remain invisible. Someone who isn’t succeeding at this is George Peach, the resident loser who everyone on the school picks on. Her show then proceeds to focus on her developing friendship with George and how a certain day in October changed his life forever.

Hilarious and moving, with a killer ending, this is not a show to miss.

What is apparent from the get go of narrating part of her childhood is that Kendall is an expert story-teller. She makes a point that she prefers stories to real life, that with stories you can essentially play God, a role which she plays perfectly. Her story, which in other hands could be rushed in a 10 minute job, is expanded beautifully over an hour, allowing both the narrative of her story and her comedy to settle.

Her structure and pacing is also something to be admired. While the narrative creates the backbone of her show, Kendall will often go off on hilarious tangents, covering Dutch people’s level of English to the difference between Italian and Australian smokers. Yet despite going off on seemingly irrelevant tangents, often referring to running jokes, Kendall always reigns herself in, making the nucleus of her show shine through.

However the strength of Kendall’s show is that it is not only extremely funny but also incredibly poignant. Within seconds Kendall turns her audience from uncontrollable laughter to complete silence, making the show something quite special. Hilarious and moving, with a killer ending, this is not a show to miss.