Jenny Collier @ Laughing Horse, Espionage

Jenny Collier's dark sense of humour shines the best light in her latest hour

Review by James McColl | 14 Aug 2018

A Few Good Jen sees Jenny Collier return to the Fringe with more tales of modern London life, her self-proclaimed disastrous love life, and the everyday problems being a comic bring her. Collier's ongoing mission to find a London-based home that isn’t entirely toxic and borderline uninhabitable will hit home to any Londoner and city-based audience members alike. Equally, run-ins with family, which paint her as an unsuccessful mess, will ring true with the same crowds.

Collier doesn’t stray too far from her natural inclination for storytelling which pins the show together. When she does, her slightly oddball personality and dark sense of humour bring a freshness to the show, which sometimes risks stagnation due to the familiarity of its topics. It’s the more weird and questionable moments on stage that draws the audience into her world and what makes her a more distinguishable act from others – her bizarre misunderstandings with doctors are terrifically terrible.

What is most impressive about Collier is that she refrains from creating a sense of hierarchy in the room levelling herself on par with her audience at all times. Her maniacal stories are always enjoyable even if they don’t always get huge laughs, placing Collier in a hurricane of mess, not always (but mostly) of her own creation.


Jenny Collier: A Few Good Jen, Laughing Horse, Espionage (Kasbar), 2-26 Aug, 4pm, Free

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