Jordan Gray @ Assembly George Square
Musical comedy star Jordan Gray returns to the Edinburgh Fringe after her spectacular run in 2022
After her barnstorming Fringe success three years ago, Jordan Gray returns to the Fringe with her new show – and she faces a real challenge. How to follow up such a high profile and successful run? A quick montage reminds us that her new fame has not been smooth sailing, with one notorious TV appearance (featuring full frontal nudity) resulting in 1,500 Ofcom complaints and a significant amount of pushback.
Straight to business, her first number tackles the nature of the challenge. And she bemoans the profligacy of her success: revealing all – quite literally – when she should have been more circumspect (and saved it for OnlyFans). But giving her all is clearly what she does best, Gray brings the same energy and commitment to this show as her first, pacing the stage with rangy, restless energy.
She's clear as day, salt of the earth, but despite her artlessly candid style, Gray's doing a lot of careful work. There's one particularly deft gag which plays both sides at once; capturing the hysteria about what are actually very small numbers of trans women, while also mischievously playing on the idea of biological advantage in sport.
These are tough times for the transgender community, a particular casualty of the ‘anti-woke’ shift, but this isn't something Gray labours. 'I'm fine' she says, blithely, 'but then I'm famous'; she doesn't need to say more – trans thriving is far from universal. But evidence of that thriving is vital and perhaps explains the section about Gray's wife, a key part of modelling the possibility of a happy life.
For all her contentment, though, she still yearns for experience she can’t access – the camaraderie of women sharing tampons, for example. The end of the show transforms the female specificity of this into something universal; unable to access that community, she makes her own, right here, regardless of gender.
Jordan Gray: Is That a C*ck in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Here to Kill Me?, Assembly George Square Gardens (Piccolo), until 24 Aug (not 19), 9.05pm, £10-18