Just when you think you’ve seen it all in Edinburgh, a Fringe show comes along that charms you with its silliness. Kat Bond is one half of double act That Pair and, together with Lorna Shaw they reached the final of the Funny Women Awards in 2012. They have both developed solo material and this is Kat’s debut solo show.
Loo Roll is Kat’s surreal and improbable reimagining of being left by her family in a wheelie bin, outside Papa Johns in Luton. A set with props made entirely out of loo rolls provides a quirky background to a series of characters who we encounter in her attempt to create a new family from amongst her audience.
Kat combines stand up, character and clowning to portray the self-important Tabby Crabb, a supremely confident American who writes stories on loo roll, a mother of young daughters who’s the real One Direction obsessive, and trigger-tempered Bill, a blokeish, football-loving bin man who can’t cope with anyone who doesn’t recycle properly.
It’s very easy to be dismissive of the current trend for character comedy and clowning and, admittedly, it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. However, performed well and with full on commitment you can entrance your audience and take them into a world of strangeness and escapism.
Kat is an award-winning character comic and actor with credits for BBC’s Call the Midwife, Channel 4’s Blaps and Sky’s The Greatest. She pops up on television commercials too and I expect a few casting directors will be calling her after this performance. Kat proves that you can leave reality to the ‘serious’ stand ups.
★★★★
Kat Bond: Loo Roll is at the Pleasance Courtyard at 17:45 until 28th August. For tickets and more information click here!
