Shirley Gnome

• Marissa Burgess
• 16 August 2013

This article is from 2013

Not-so-well-crafted filthy material leads to a dull show

After the third song focused on below the belt activities you start to wonder whether the whole show's going to be like this. The answer is quite simply, yes.

The level of the filth isn't the problem, there are many good acts on the Fringe gloriously celebrating the female sexual experience; Jenny Éclair and Diane Spencer are two and they too gleefully employ shock value. But in both those shows the gags are skilfully crafted and almost lyrical in their execution. Presented as a pink-wearing country singer, Canadian Gnome is more of the Roy 'Chubby' Brown school. The only consideration made to writing the lyrics seems to be what rhymes with 'penis' or 'vagina'. Put simply it's artless. Which is a shame because Gnome can certainly sing and pleasingly plays the guitar. A handful of her songs – a love affair lamented after finding his discarded cum-rags, two shorts about tampons and a ditty about finding unexpected glitter on her genitalia would work quite nicely with a bit of tweaking and in amongst an hour with considerably more variation. Unfortunately as it stands the whole effect is just dull.

Underbelly, Cowgate, 0844 545 8252, until 25 Aug, 10.20pm, £8–£9.50 (£7–£8.50).