Stand-up comedian Lou Conran is back at the Fringe with an hour of silliness and a show that threatens to run off the rails at any moment but hey, that’s part of the fun. In A Show, the award-winning MC revels in interacting with the audience, the front row in particular bearing the brunt. But Conran is so hugely likeable that you almost want to be picked on.
After previous shows tackling serious topics such as grief, Conran is happiest when chatting about utter nonsense, whether it’s installing a camera to spy on her neighbour’s cat shitting all over her garden or being the warm-up act for Countdown, the audience is fully on board with the hilarity. A truly physical performer, Conran rarely stands still and has a memorable moment while standing on a chair that has everyone in stitches.
In a show about what the comic got up to in lockdown and various attempts to get on the telly, including a truly disastrous Deal or No Deal experience, we are always laughing with Conran, not at her. She revels in being filthy, both with her language and her anecdotes and the crowd lap it up. One audience member gets to count the number of f-bombs during the show with a clicker, and probably loses count at various points. There’s a particularly memorable section where couples get to share how they would kill their partners, with Conran taking notes every day and finding some imaginative (and some gruesome) ways to off your lover.
There’s never a dull moment when Conran is on stage and the end of the show reveals a callback so good I will absolutely not spoil it here. If you baulk at the c-word, this is not the show for you, but for everyone else, there’s a great time to be had.