Comedy review: Katherine Ryan, Blackfriars, Glasgow

Katherine Ryan

Blackfriars, Glasgow

****

Yet this version of her 2012 Edinburgh Fringe show, virtually unrecognisable to the one the Canadian delivered in August, has ironed out some flaws and pushed its strengths to the fore. She retains a Heat magazine-devouring obsession with

celebrity. Yet she’s made the critiques more universally recognisable, leading an audience largely oblivious to

Kim Kardashian and Beyonce’s performance at the Super Bowl through their idiosyncrasies with bold, brassy

impersonations that remain nuanced and convincing. She nails a sharp point too, as to why black icons like

Beyoncé and Rhianna are celebrated, while white trash like Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan and herself are

castigated for striking similar poses. Benefitting from a compelling back story – a divorced, twenty-something

single mother from a backwoods town with divorced parents and a couple of unsexy illnesses – Ryan holds little

back in her mentions of sex, tellingly not losing the crowd when she unabashedly asks them to open up on their

own dirty talk. Some of her best material concerns the relationship she has with her three-year-old daughter, a

love-hate bond that throws up some wickedly funny moments of crossed wires. Elsewhere, she has the knack

of coercing you into championing the unpalatable, specifically violence towards intimidating teenagers. With

a butter-wouldn’t-melt expression that accentuates her cruellest lines, Ryan shifts effortlessly between the

throwaway and tragic with some whipsmart lines.