Always on topic, always funny, never predictable.
A lot of comedians have been really hard done by this fringe, not by the low pay, high costs of accommodation and the general unreliableness of fringe success actually leading anywhere, these are expected. What was not expected by Alexandra Haddow was that she’d spend months preparing a comedy set focused politics, and then have a snap election called the month before.
She has elegantly sidestepped that setback and delivered a set perhaps less political than she’d originally intended but hilarious, relatable, unpredictable and cutting nonetheless. Opening with a BBC radio announcement about a dreamy future wherein her new political party has won, delivering a range of hilarious but oddly apt solutions for Britain’s problems, punishments for the almost cartoonish villains from the last 14 years of conservative rule, and a few policies that are quite reasonable all things considered. Before you even see Alexandra on stage, she’s taken control of the crowd, and let us know who she is (largely quite angry for both the state of the nation, and calling a snap election forcing her to rewrite the set).
She steps on stage firing off into a series of releases of anger, jokes and anecdotes about the last decade of British politics. Hardly the most unique topic, but each joke is unpredictable, edgy, and exposes all too popular emotions through new angles, setups and punchlines. She’s relatable with her concerns, problems and issues both at a party political level and a more conceptual social one, but she communicates these with ease, keeping it down to earth without letting you see what’s coming next.
The latter half of the show mostly concerns her personal life, both in the awkwardness that comes through sharing small flats in your 30s while in a couple, to her deciding to start experimenting with drugs. The latter evolves into several anecdotes and stories that meander in surprising and relatable ways, celebrating being able to have a fun night out that ends in a smart well kept house rather than perhaps how many of us spent “afters” in a park, or cramped into someone’s bedroom. Alexandra is charismatic, relatable, and conducts the audience like an orchestra, pulling the strings with every setup, punchline, winding anecdote or unexpected turn of phrase. I’m excited to see more of Alexandra, both the sincere anecdotes about having fun in your 30s to the scathing jokes about the political state. Always on topic, always funny, never predictable.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/alexandra-haddow-third-party