Comedy review: An Evening With Rosie Kane - State Bar, Glasgow

Published on 22/03/2013 02:11

Comedians hail from all walks of all life. Rosie Kane may not be the first politician to try their hand at stand-up, or even the first MSP. But she may just be the best.

An Evening With Rosie Kane - State Bar, Glasgow

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Taking to the stage singing Chumbawamba’s socialist anthem Tubthumping, backed on guitar by her brother Big Tam McGarvey, this looked set to be a long night. And so it proved, though an entertaining one.

Kane has no singing voice to speak of, irrespective of her admiration for Lulu.

Her early childhood reminisces of life in Nitshill were delivered with the breathy excitement of a child, but she settled into her assured storytelling style soon enough.

Her opening tale, of how she came to be dropped on her head as a baby is an endearing anecdote, even if she hasn’t yet contrived a suitably punchy punchline for it.

Regardless, there’s a lightness of touch to her yarn-spinning that can incorporate a side-note of tragedy and still wring earthy laughs from the denouement.

Kane’s tales have a folksy quality and it’s doubtful she could play outside Scotland, so steeped is she in the local patter. But she has a finely tuned observational eye and is very funny on class pretension, even making satirical, topical gags about the bedroom tax.

Less would have been more over a two-hour show, but her delivery and timing is surprisingly polished.

A minor revelation as a comic, it’s to be hoped that she sticks with it.