After protestations from the group yesterday, we do now reach the actual earliest show of our Fringe trip, an absolutely - to be fair to them - obscene 11.05am start. But it’s for Janine Harouni, who is excellent and worth going to see at any hour of the day, and I’m confident it will be good fun.
It’s always an interesting experience seeing heavily advertised WIP shows at the Fringe. They can run the whole gamut. I’ve seen WIP shows at the Fringe which are scrappier than other acts’ March previews, and I’ve seen shows like Ahir Shah’s Ends last year, which was advertised as a WIP and would make any other comedian cry from shame at what they presented under that title, not least it then winning the main prize. Today we’re seeing two WIPs, so that should be an interesting contrast. Here, I think we are quite heavily into WIP mode. With no disrespect intended, because as stated, I think she’s brilliant, this is an hour show that has both a support act and a decent chunk of quite time-filling crowdwork. Still funny crowdwork, don’t get me wrong, but yes. An hour this is not.
Harouni has nailed the way to do it, though. She knows the way to make it work is to have known funny sections interleaved with perhaps less so sections. “I’ll be honest with you, this next bit is funny” is such a lovely way of beginning a bit whilst also copping to the form. It’s a lot of fun watching her work out the distinction between jokes and merely embarrassing memories - a vital part of the process for all of us.
The 11am timeslot does pose its own problems. Or, not problems, I suppose, but constraints. There’s two different illusions fighting it out here - the illusion that it’s perfectly normal and fine for comedy to be taking place before you’ve even started thinking about lunch, and the illusion that at the Fringe, it’s weird to be seeing or doing comedy at this time of day anyway. I’m inclined, as a comedian and a comedy nerd anyway, to consider it perfectly fine and that it wouldn’t be a factor in the audience repsonse, but I am probably wrong on that, judging by every other comic’s reaction to it.
I’ve not talked about a Fringe support act before! I think, at least. Kathryn Higgins has been roped in to open at an 11am show and boy is she not happy about that. She does some good crowdwork and does generally whip up the right mood in the room, which is all you can ask for, really. I think she does complement Haronui’s vibe accordingly.