Hailing all the way from the bright lights of New York, Sarah Sherman’s self-described horror comedy show - with the emphasis on the horror - is incredibly ghastly and overly graphic.
Shocking, but in perhaps the worst way possible
Sherman does come off as rather chaotic and unprepared, mostly due to her reliance on improvisation between jokes, which just spirals into insults at us in an incredibly aggressive manner. If anything, Sherman proves that American comedians do not know how to swear, in that she cusses every second word with little rhyme or reason, setting herself apart from most British comedians who use the words sparingly to, more often than not, hit a punchline, something that Sherman doesn't seem to understand. She has a couple of good impressions; her repetitive spiral that culminates into listing all the downsides of New York; how her dad could hook any one of us with any job using ‘Jewish geography’, and what it was like living with her during the pandemic. However, her use of Scottish words, places and accent (like her swearing) is quite cringeworthy and relatively hubristic. Between that, her constant begging for stars from reviewers whilst doing a poor impression of Oliver Twist and telling us that if we don’t laugh at her jokes, we hate women, the entire show just falls flat and is physcially painful to sit through.
In an attempt to tap into the self-deprecating vein that Fringe audiences enjoy, Sherman narrates and shows us some incredibly graphic videos that are just uncomfortable to sit through. In trying to make fun of herself by showing these over-exaggerated and vulgar videos, she actually goes too far, to the point where her protest comedy highlighting and over-exaggerating society's perception of female bodily functions and aspects actually undermines current feminist narratives on body positivity and destigmatisation.
Sherman says that her show isn’t necessarily funny, but it is interesting, despite the most basic characeristic of stand-up is to be funny and make people laugh. This show is shocking, but in perhaps the worst way possible. Incredibly vulgar, this is not for those with a weak stomach and who desire more from comedy than the juvenile punchlines that Sherman delivers.
