@ Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh, until Mon 17 Aug 2015 @ 20:15
Having established a degree of public acclaim/notoriety with her debut show Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It… , “gimmicky pantless rape lady” Truscott appears to have over-thought this follow-up; it’s a confused hour that doesn’t appear to know whether it’s hitting us with the same issues as the first, documenting her struggle to move forward (hence the One Trick Pony of the title) or doing something else entirely – examining “irony” – which may or may not have implications for the other things she may or may not be trying to say.
The irony theme, such as it is, doesn’t really hold water. American, British, dramatic, situational – there are a flood of definitions of irony floating around and they keep on diving in and out of the piece drippily, without sufficient purpose, like the water metaphors in this paragraph. Moreover, opening a set with Snow Patrol, even in an “ironic” way, is plain offensive, and does not get proceedings off on a good foot.
Introducing herself with a knowing air, she cites her Wikipedia page as evidence she’s reached a certain level of fame, which really is ironic, since it was me that wrote her Wikipedia page (username peaky76, go check) and it only really puts her on a par with the other obscure figures of limited notability I write about, like 18th century Derby winning jockey Anthony Wheatley and the guy who gave rise to the phrase “happy as Larry”.
That’s only the start of her self-referential material. At one point, she says “it doesn’t matter if you didn’t see it [her first show]”, only to follow it with things for which it would really have helped to have seen the first show. Fringe in-jokes about The Boy With Tape On His Face and Puddles the clown only add to this sense of exclusivity.
Repeated clips of Andy Kaufman leave her clarifying who he was and what he did. Explaining yourself is never a good look for a comedian, but it’s needed, and at least allows for a decent climax that has the audience laughing at its slapstick nature, if not necessarily for its sense of resolution.
The other irony is she’s a better stand-up than she gives herself credit for, not so much the One Trick Pony. She apologises for some of her best lines, as if it’s not good enough just to be funny (or is she being one of the versions of ironic again?) Possibly these are signs of a very clever concept that got buried. As it stands, it seems like a sequel that seems panicky and overwrought.