Comedy review: Myra DuBois: Dead Funny, Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh
Myra DuBois: Dead Funny, Underbelly, Bristo Square * * * *
“It’s okay to whoop and cheer,” acid-tongued drag sensation Myra DuBois quips. “It’s what I would have wanted.” The gimmick of the show, you see, is that we are the guests at Myra’s funeral, which comes complete with mawkish tribute photo, black urn, box of tissues and an unusually lively subject. Not many corpses, after all, greet their own mourners high-kicking in leopardskin and sequins and belting out “rest in peace” to the tune of Rescue Me.
It all makes for Myra’s best show yet, with a foundation of tight scripted material offering comfortable leeway for plentiful improvisation in the moment. Especially sensitive types might feel it veers into the macabre (“Has anyone been to a funeral? Give me a cheer!”) but, as shows about death go, its very lively. Apart from the songs that is. As usual, they get massacred.
BEN WALTERS
Until 25 August