Comedy review: Inspiration

Inspiration

Opium (Venue 96)

JJJ

One of the advantages of finding it difficult to speak is it forces you to think about every word.

You get a real sense of precision with Katy Jones: every word is carefully chosen, her punchlines always land and her sense of timing is superb.

Katy works in television, comes from the north of England and has cerebral palsy.

It is, as she says, the elephant in the room. And a good portion of her show is spent discussing both the difficulties of her condition and the reaction she faces from other people. There is a lot of observational mileage in the daily challenges faced by people with disabilities. And Jones is delightfully mischievous and playful in her approach to the obstacles she faces in life. She’s called her show Inspiration because she’s tired of being patronised – she’d much rather we didn’t think of her as brave.

This debut show is only 45 minutes long – which doesn’t give much time to explore other topics. But it would be nice to see Jones branch out and tackle broader issues.

At the end she has a message for non-disabled people which is both surprising and brings tears to your eyes.

Claire Smith

Until 26 August. Today 3pm.