Despite being divided by years, comedians Catherine Bohart and Cally Beaton have a lot in common. Which is why they have come together to create their Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Cat Call, combining both their names and their experiences. We caught their last Edinburgh preview as part of the Funny Women Festival on the Good Ship Benefit.
Catherine kicks off the show, revealing that she dates ladies and explaining why so many find this implausible. Because we all know it is up to your audience to decide upon your sexuality. Rightly baffled by the general public’s failure to grasp the concept of being femme and bisexual, 27 year old Catherine delivers her observations with acerbic wit. And if you think coming out in London can be awkward try coming out in Dublin. Where your father is a Catholic Deacon. If anyone can handle all of this it’s 2016 Funny Women Awards regional finalist Catherine.
It’s unusual to win an audience over with sarcasm (being not the lowest, but scariest form of wit) but Catherine does it. A newcomer to the circuit, this talented comedian sees things from an interesting point of view and clearly has many more stories to tell.
Cally Beaton has managed to beat the odds and get to 47 in spite of an early, devastating diagnosis. Like Catherine, Cally also grew up with parents who took on highly public roles, thrusting her into the limelight. Though not as lead girl. Cally has gone on to have two children, one of whom has autism which Cally addresses with amusing and refreshing frankness.
After a significant break up Cally has begun to expand her dating pool and she finds it exhausting (it’s fair to say her description of her new sex life is… clit shrivelling. But only because I don’t care for any ‘flicking’ action) but it’s great to see and older (allegedly) woman talking so unashamedly about her life and squeezing all the comic material she can from it.
It’s worth noting that Catherine and Cally managed to do all of this whilst being ginger. Well done ladies.
You can catch Cat Call at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Just the Tonic at The Community Project 4th-14th and 16th-28th August. For more information and tickets click here!
★★★
