Australian comedienne Gillian Cosgriff is a triple threat, although not in the traditional sense of the phrase. Her particular triple threat comes via comedy, singing and piano and the combination creates an entertaining hour in the turret of the Gilded Balloon.
She opens by telling the audience she is 26 and has fears of where her life will be when she is 30, as she hasn’t ticked the boxes society says she should have. Her brand of comedy is brought to life through her songs and she sings all too real ditties about her championship winning skills of procrastination, her hatred for social media’s love of inspirational quotes, having her heart broken, her “illness” of early onset nostalgia and finally closes with a touching letter to her sixteen-year-old self. The blend of music and comedy seems to be becoming more and more popular and Cosgriff is comfortable in the genre.
Much of the show centres round “the ugliest bag in the world” which is finally revealed at the end of the show and throughout there are sporadically inserted pearls of wisdom such as to appreciate what you have rather than striving for what you don’t, and to treat yourself, a motto she and her friends lived by for a year and which she sells on badges after the show.
After revealing her innermost fears as she approaches the milestone 30th birthday Cosgriff admits to the audience that it is more real and terrifying than she had admitted early in the show – she is in fact 29 and has still not ticked those boxes!
It is a thought-provoking comedy show with a friendly humour but there is no risk, which prevents the show reaching the heights the talents at her disposal could produce. It is an accomplished, if too comfortable, Edinburgh Fringe debut and a great platform for Cosgriff to build on.