What you see is a sharp, engaging and award-winning comedian. On the surface, a typical Italian New Yorker now based in the UK with credits on Comedy Central, Comic Relief, BBC Three and BBC Radio Four and ready for her Netflix Special. What you get is a brilliant, uplifting debut hour exploring her relationship with a Lebanese-American father who’s an avid Donald Trump supporter and how she negotiates her way through it.
She tells honestly how as a young Republican she left home and changed her worldview, how she came to Britain and spent a lot of money training to be a mostly ‘at home’ actress apart from a brief and amusing encounter with Kiera Knightley and delights the audience with her perfect impressions of a Conservative Italian community in Staten Island where ‘Anthony’ (in every Italian themed movie – Godfather, Rocky et al) is always in trouble.
Along the way you also meet her Italian-American mother and an extended family – a boy her parents adopt, her gay best friend, her Irish boyfriend, her girlfriends and the dog as she magically interweaves how she and her father both learn and grow from these characters and their experiences and how differences and obstacles can be overcome. Her storytelling skills are impressive as is her spontaneous comic timing on this occasion as she deftly brings some latecomers up to date whilst gently reprimanding them.
Already winner of the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year 2018, a finalist in the BBC New Comedian of the Year 2019 and a part of successful comedy sketch trio Muriel, there can only be more prizes ahead.
This is a very personal, touching story with great jokes and observations, finely tuned and performed by a formidable talent and very likeable human.
★★★★
Stand Up with Janine Harouni (Please Remain Seated) is at the Pleasance Courtyard at 20:15 until 25th August. For tickets and more information click here!
Funny Women are at the Edinburgh Fringe with five shows, from 19th – 23rd August, a Funny Women Awards 2019 semi-final, a Stand Up to Stand Out workshop and a Meet Up. Come find us!
There’s still time to nominate a women-led show for the 2019 Funny Women Awards’ Best Show Category! The show with the most nominations will be picked! Nominate a show you have seen or your own show by 31st August here!
