Last year, Susie McCabe told an international audience (that fact established by way of asking people where they were from and taking their words for it) was the best year of her life. There’s a major caveat, because she had a heart attack just before Edinburgh Fringe 2024 got underway, but by that point the show for Fringe 2024 had been written, the promotional materials done, and all the rest of it. But at least she has a starting point when it comes to writing her show for Fringe 2025, so I’ll hear about the heart attack then. Maybe. The ‘maybe’ part is on me, rather than her, as it depends, as ever, on which shows clash with one another, and what my Fringe schedule can accommodate. McCabe will very likely do what she said she would – it’s not like she’s a politician.
This was very much a comedy hour where you could sit back and relax – and if you’re not from a working-class Scottish background, nae bother (so to speak), as McCabe interrupts herself as often as required to provide context and explanations as to what she’s referring to. I loved her descriptions of what staying at a budget hotel is like – contrasted with a stay at the Balmoral Hotel for her honeymoon. There was a lengthy description of the Balmoral and its illustrious history which I won’t regurgitate here, suffice to say she paid £650 per night. Yes, ouch, but also, y’know, you only live once. I had no idea what a ‘turndown service’ was before seeing this show: like McCabe, I do budget hotels. I don’t do posh ones.
The international nature of the Fringe and its audiences proved useful when it came to contrasting different approaches to how the world at large might respond to McCabe’s decisions to do something – or indeed not to do something – as opposed to how her friends actually responded to McCabe seeking to become a better person, or to not participate in a bottomless brunch simply because she couldn’t be bothered on that particular day. A reflective conclusion brought together various narrative strands in a series of stirring and inspiring rhyming couplets. I loved every minute of this warm and engaging show.
Review by Chris Omaweng
After having supported Kevin Bridges, Jason Manford and John Bishop on tour, as well as appearing on television shows Live At The Apollo, Have I Got New For You, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order and radio shows such as News Quiz, Just a Minute and Off The Ball, there’s no stopping Susie McCabe who has been called a ‘national treasure’ by The Herald and Metro.
Off the Kerb Productions presents
SUSIE McCABE: MERCHANT OF MENACE
Assembly George Square at the Edinburgh Fringe
31 July to 25 August 2024
Shows and events booking now for Edinburgh Playhouse and for King’s Theatre Glasgow.
