So, this is a slightly unusual one for us as we didn’t actually get to see the show. During our recent spell at the Brighton Fringe, we had tickets to see another clown, Amy Webber, but as we neared show time, we were informed that our trains were playing up and that if we watched the show we would be effectively stranded in Brighton. I was up for risking it, my far more professional and mature pals were (in hindsight quite rightly) not.

Luckily, we had been out with some Brighton based friends of ours and they were more than happy to take our tickets and enjoy the show without us. We gave them directions to the Caroline of Brunswick -a classic comedy venue where we had seen a cracking show from Dian Cathal the year before– and headed to the station.

It was near midnight when I received the voice note, having left the venue post gig one of my friends had called and left a very enthusiastic message thanking us for the tickets and giving a pretty detailed account of the gig. Now as this site is all about the experience of live stand-up comedy, I thought that it might be fun to turn that into an unofficial review – after all what could be more honest than the thoughts of a Brighton based Spaniard who has almost never been to a Fringe gig! This is my summation of that voice note…

This show was awesome, genuinely funny. Our clown had a really nice show concept where she is essentially looking for work and explaining how she got to this point in her career. What do you do when you are qualified in opera but decide that you don’t want to work in that industry?

A key to the performance was the audience participation, our clown used the crowd to great effect, teasing rather than attacking (in particular a lovely man named Jeff) and taking suggestions to further the show. She could pretty much play anything on her mini keyboard and had an incredible singing voice, not that I know opera, but it sounded like amazing Opera.

Like all of the best comedy this show comes from a place of humble, and sometimes brutal, honesty as we get to hear the evolution of an artist through song. The show was as interesting as it was funny and provided a true multi-sensory experience for the enthusiastic crowd packed into the pub’s upstairs event space.

Well, I think that this sort of worked. All in all, it does sound like we missed a cracking gig and one that I hope we can actually catch first hand when she performs at Just The Tonic (The Mash House) during the Edinburgh Fringe later this year. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Clown Stars (-unrated-)

@Laughing Horse – Caroline of Brunswick, Brighton

* Amy posted this photo on her Twitter account after the show, you can see our man waving about halfway back. I think he’s since tried to find the 5 pop songs that Amy mentioned that she’d previously released – we may have a fan on our hands!