Comedy review: Fern Brady: Suffer, Fools!

Edinburghy Festival Fringe: Despite being only 31, Fern Brady has lived a very eventful life.

The Stand Comedy Club 2 (Venue 5)

***

Despite being only 31, Fern Brady has lived a very eventful life. She once worked as a stripper to fund a journalism internship and a university degree on Arabic and Islamic history. She’s served eggs to paedophiles (not a euphemism). She’s even survived an attempt on her life.

With commendable honesty and a total lack of sentiment, the Bathgate-born comic reveals all of this in an hour which hints at her potential.

She’s an engagingly sardonic presence with an eloquent turn of phrase and a gift for spinning bald autobiographical yarns, but big laughs are thin on the ground. However, there’s an interesting comic voice bubbling under the surface here.

Brady has self-diagnosed as borderline autistic, which helps, she says, to explain her poor social skills. An anecdote about having her heart broken and exacting drug-addled revenge on her boyfriend’s new partner is particularly hair-raising.

But that’s nothing compared to her horrifying account of the domestic violence she suffered at the hands of an ex. He’s the one who tried to kill her.

That she can conjure dark humour from such mat-
erial is testament to her evident skill. She’s an interesting character, definitely one to watch.

Until 27 August. Today 12:05pm.