While McGuinness may identify with being a slob herself, her comedy is far from slob-like, with well crafted puns and gags sprinkled throughout a thoughtful hour – which is established even before she comes on stage, with a help ourselves buffet of treats – it’s a prepared, well considered set, delivered with warm energy.
McGuinness starts us off with some traditional stand up about her; her minimum wage day job at a hotel breakfast buffet (with a particularly enjoyable bit about her role as baked bean distributor), her relationship history with men who all fall under the same ‘type’ – head to toe leather bikers who are 20 years her senior – and tales of her twenties spent prioritising fun over anything else. McGuinness is affable, her stories paint herself as equal parts young and carefree, with an underlying grit from a hinted at rock-and-roll past.
McGuinness’ observational bits that she infuses with millenial cultural references all land well – her dread at someone using dream matt mouse on her face at her funeral, and delight at a guy spelling out the iconic millenial ‘s’ (if you know you know) with his tongue during sex.
The second half of the show takes a more serious turn, as McGuinness shares her experience of becoming ill with sepsis, which lands her in a stint in ICU, after surviving a 9 day coma. The descriptions of the dreams she had whilst in a coma are harrowing, but McGuinness cuts through the horror with heart warming conclusions that coincide with her getting better. Her epiphany of hope gives her existential clarity, and ultimately becomes the idea and motivation behind creating the show. With satisfying callbacks, the show comes to a close as McGuinness reveals the meaning of life is the thing she’s been mocking the dreaded ‘normies’ about since teenage-hood.
You can catch Slob every day until Sunday 24th August @ 2:55 PM at CabVol 2, Monkey Barrel (Cabaret Voltaire). Tickets here
