Kat Bond @ Pleasance Courtyard

Kat Bond combines characters, clowning and witty one-liners for an energetic first solo hour

Review by Eve Livingston | 04 Aug 2017

If the premise of Kat Bond’s Loo Roll – a physical character comedy based around a ‘loo roller’, who reads stories from toilet paper as one might read tea leaves – seems absurd, that’s because it is. Bond’s skilful writing and performance carries the audience through a fast-paced hour based around the story of Pat, abandoned in a bin in Luton, attempting to find her real family.

Bond uses props including a hi-vis jacket, potatoes and even a photo of The Railway Children actor Jenny Agutter to great effect, with each item evoking a new character and backstory, the diversity of which Bond navigates with ease. Her characters are perceptive and consistently funny, with a middle-aged One Direction superfan who stalks Harry Styles and a gruff working class bin man providing particular highlights.

Mild audience participation brings the crowd along with her and she responds well to unpredictable contributions: in a particularly successful section she ‘tries on’ different audience members’ surnames to see which fits best. Bond’s brand of comedy is outlandish and frenetic but her skill in executing it gives the show an appeal beyond the ridiculous. Combining sharp gags, perceptive characters and clowning elements, Loo Roll is an inventive debut.


Kat Bond: Loo Roll, Pleasance Courtyard (That), 2-28 Aug (not 16), 5.45pm, £6.50-10

http://www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/edinburgh-fringe/comedy