Theatre
Review: Katherine Ryan, From Sarnia with love and lols
From the moment she walks onstage to rapturous applause, Katherine Ryan‘s popularity is blatant.
She quickly turns the table on herself however by cheekily stating her own bravery for appearing onstage underneath an oversized photoshopped (her words) version of herself and referring to herself as an older Joan Rivers; whom she shares many a comic trait. I know I’m in for a treat.
Katherine Ryan is in the prime of her career, with regular appearances on Mock The Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats and Have I Got News For You as well as extremely well received acting roles in sitcoms such as Episodes on BBC2 and Campus on Channel 4, not to mention playing Nicky Minaj for a Let’s Dance for Comic Relief competition (she came a respectable fourth). Katherine is quickly becoming the nation’s comedy sweetheart. A term she would most likely recoil in horror at and rightly so. Katherine’s razor sharp wit and pithy put downs on our celebrity-obsessed society would make Charlie Brooker proud. No one is safe from her sardonic scorn.
“It’s exactly this kind of fearlessness that makes Katherine stand head and shoulders above most comedians out there.”
Taylor Swift ,Donald Trump and Cheryl Cole/Fernandez/ One Direction/too many last names to remember get mercilessly savaged by her special brand of comedic ire. She does a nearly-spot-on impersonation of Cheryl! But this isn’t just mud-slinging or bitchiness on her part, these are well-crafted gags and opinions that are hers and she couldn’t give a toss if you agree or not and that’s why they land every time. Part of the reason these opinions go down so well is that they resonate with us so much… although we lack the spinal strength to say them ourselves. It’s exactly this kind of fearlessness that makes Katherine stand head and shoulders above most comedians out there.
The beauty in this show is how she doesn’t spare anyone from getting roasted, oh cross this lady if you dare! A brilliant routine about an attention seeking actor ex-boyfriend who who wanted her to make public appearances with him to I suspect and she confirms to raise his own profile is both refreshingly telling and hilarious.
“She is a fiercely opinionated humorist, feminist and mother.”
Family is clearly very important to her and that’s why she reserves a good bit of her time to take the pi** out of them. Reminding her sister, whom she assumes is the by-product of an extra marital affair between her father and a granola bar, that although she lives in the mountains and makes all her clothes on a loom that she is not a bear. She goads her younger sister for being the town’s oldest spinster at the ripe old age of 25. Ironically that same sister is marrying a Pilipino man which is hilarious given the fact she upset their entire nation inadvertently with a joke on Mock The Week which was taken wholly out of context. Her way of redeeming herself? Easy, write a speech for her wedding. Well what a speech. Thanking her sister for being the maid of honour mostly because it pisses off her wh**re friends ‘who wouldn’t know honour if it slapped them in the face’’. Ouch! The rest is way too risqué for me to print. I don’t think she’ll be topping wedding invites list if this is the standard, shame though! But we’re all in on the joke, she isn’t what some narrow-minded critics have labelled a nasty ice queen, she is a fiercely opinionated humorist, feminist and mother.
Whether you managed to catch Katherine Ryan on this live run or will be settling for the DVD for now, prepare to inevitably quote the s**t out of it as I have been doing ever since seeing this whirlwind of charm, beauty, vitriol and scorn blow her contemporaries out of the water. I think I’m smitten.
Get the latest Katherine Ryan tour dates and see more comedy tours at Ticketmaster.co.uk/comedyguide.
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