Comedy review: DeAnne Smith: Livin’ The Sweet Life, Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14)

By JAY RICHARDSON
Published on 07/08/2012 12:00

THERE’S a recommendable show here, if only DeAnne Smith can resist patronising her audience. Granted, she was dealt a quiet, polite crowd on the day I attended. But hectoring them with “these are jokes” didn’t reflect or increase their appreciation.

DeAnne Smith: Livin’ The Sweet Life

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14)

Rating: ***

That’s a shame because this Canadian is an otherwise likeable performer, a nerdy, ukulele-strumming lesbian hipster determined to take those watching on an odyssey of meditation and sexual misadventure.

Her title is doubly ironic, reflecting the modest luxuries of her humble existence while recognising their relative opulence in the context of global poverty. Woven in between, there’s an upbeat song about the bleakest subject, tales of forced bonding with her father over Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and a winning anecdote about a one-night stand that finishes in the emergency room.

At times she is deeply cynical, at others a clumsy ingénue, while associating with young male comics has piqued her interest in pornography – her own surprising preferences informed by socialist principle and a desire to support artistic lifestyles.

A public transport-championing vegan, distressed to discover the exploitation behind her essential gadgets, she brilliantly twists that discomfort into self-pity, having previously delivered a memorable, howling refrain from her traumatic visit to a bikini waxing salon.

• Until 27 August. Today 7:30pm.