Chloe Petts @ Pleasance Courtyard
With a fourth great Fringe hour in as many years, stadium-filling stardom surely beckons for Chloe Petts
Chloe Petts' consistent hit rate is impressive: this is her fourth Fringe show in as many years, each garnering strong reviews as she grows ever more assured on stage. Her new show is another evolution in Petts' investigation of masculinity: an anatomy of lad culture, and a further chapter in her life story, as she excavates deeper into her youth to explore the little lad she once was.
Tongue firmly in cheek, Petts mourns the loss of the tabloid favourite, Page 3, nostalgic for those days of big tits and gossipy voyeurism (her bit about the tabloid preoccupation with Vanessa Feltz's custard habit is a particular beauty). A paper round allows her to keep close to the big naturals action, then, as she grows older, her interests turn to Kasabian, their concerts giving her the opportunity to scrutinise male habits up close; a pint gets knocked over, eyes go red and Fred Perry collars pop up like cobra hoods. But for all the ridiculous posturing of lad culture at its 90s peak (which the current Oasis revival seems to yearn for), Petts is just as mocking about newer forms of masculinity.
Petts can satirise masculinity so freely because she has skin in the game: as a self-declared masculine lesbian, with a penchant for tiny bisexual women, she acknowledges she's implicated in all that's examined here. Masculinity is no longer just the domain of men, and her particular form of masculinity is central to her appeal – with a big grin and warm chuckle, she has the kind of everyman quality that has the potential for proper stadium-filling stardom. Like those tiny bisexuals, we're putty in her hands.
Chloe Petts: Big Naturals, Pleasance Courtyard (Forth), until 24 Aug, 7pm and Pleasance Courtyard (Cabaret Bar), 22-23 Aug, 5.30pm, £17-18