I wasn’t the only one slightly disappointed that a show called The Prosecco Express doesn’t involve the consumption of prosecco either before, during or afterwards (unless, of course, as I found myself doing later that evening, buying one from the bar). The usual banter that comedians tend to have with the front row was warm and engaging, made all the more so by a rather reticent boyfriend of a project manager for apps and websites.
McNally’s lines of arguments are persuasive, even if one knows they are formulated, at least to some extent, for comic effect. An example: when she asked a friend why pregnant women mustn’t have any prosecco at all, she was told that alcohol consumption could lead to the baby having an abnormally small head. McNally’s response was simply to state that this would surely lead to a less painful delivery. (For the record, the risks are more complex and severe than that, and include learning difficulties and behavioural problems.)
Some of McNally’s friends of similar age (she is thirty-six) are already on their second marriage, while she is yet to settle down in the first place – and, as voyage of self-discovery comedy usually conclude, it is better to be contented than not, irrespective of relationship status. Her sense of frustration is understandable, given that she’s been both geographically and financially inconvenienced by gracing other people’s weddings with her presence and her gifts. And her punchlines about sexual relations were not always predictable – her ridiculing of doggy style being ‘intimate’ is particularly amusing: “Intimate? I’m looking at the wall!”. While perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea (or glass of prosecco), this is a comfortable and assured performance.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Joanne is lost (not physically, she knows exactly where she is: she’s in Leith). But adopted at six months old,
she has no real sense of who she is. She has never looked like anyone and the life she’s wearing doesn’t fit
very well, so Joanne wants a rock-solid blueprint to follow. What is she supposed to be doing with herself?
Assembly George Square Studios
Booking to 26th August 2019
https://www.edfringe.com/