Comedy review: Sophie Willan: Branded

Sophie Willan reveals that she turned to escorting for cash. Picture: ContributedSophie Willan reveals that she turned to escorting for cash. Picture: Contributed
Sophie Willan reveals that she turned to escorting for cash. Picture: Contributed
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Sophie Willan's ­breakthrough show last year, about her experiences in the care ­system as the daughter of a heroin-addicted mother, brought her a whole new ­following of Radio 4 listeners.

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

****

Where once her ­upbringing held her back, now her so-called brand as a northern, working-class woman has various commissioners and the powers-that-be falling over themselves to share her “voice”, even if they’re less enamoured by her personality and the harsh pragmatism of her life decisions to date.

Branding is a ­constricting exercise that smooths rough dissonance, such as her mother being a “vegan smackhead” who couldn’t cook, prompting the comic to marvel at the quirkiness of what this woman would and wouldn’t put into her body.

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Such choices, and certain feminist ideals are a luxury, and Willan ­discloses that as a struggling actor unable to find paid work, she turned to escorting. I’d be wary of revealing this as a spoiler. But she’s begun ­talking about it in interviews and though ­shocking, it maybe shouldn’t be as startling as it is, given the economic realities of where she found herself.

In other comic’s shows, a sex work past might form the entirety of the hour. And there are some grim details related but not a little humour too, which ­Willan shares with take-me-as-I-am charm, having unapologetically taken the stage with a twerk and some vigorous “tit shaking” at the front row.

She can’t play the happy hooker though. Blunt and decidedly unsentimental about northern nostalgia, hers is, sad to say, still a rare perspective in comedy, with her background ­seemingly still good for revelations for the cosseted chattering classes, even if she’s ­avowedly wary about being seen as a purveyor of poverty porn.

Emotionally probing and intellectually prodding, with a wry, sardonic delivery, ­Willan is a rather more rounded stand-up than that, undeniably on the rise.

Until 27 August. Today 8pm.

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