Lauren Pattison: Lady Muck

• Rowena McIntosh
• 6 August 2017

This article is from 2017.

credit: Andy Hollingworth

Tremendous coming-of-age tale with razor wit and brutal honesty

Opening the door herself with a bright 'hello', Lauren Pattison's entrance to her outstanding debut Fringe show sets the tone for an hour of chummy chat from a comedian with no pretensions. At its essence, Lady Muck is a break-up show, tracking the past 20 months since she moved to London and found herself single, starting with her job in Boots and ending two weeks before she arrived in Edinburgh. But it's so more much more than that: a coming-of-age story about the long journey to being comfortable in your own skin.

Life post-heartache is a fairly common topic in comedy but rarely will you see it tackled with such genuine vulnerability and openness: at one point there are tears in her eyes (or they might be the tears in my eyes). Throughout the pathos there's a constant wicked sense of humour from a Geordie lass that likes a drink and suffers the often hilarious consequences.

There's a wealth of relatable content: hungover vomiting in supermarkets, Facebook envy, making getaways in Ubers, and beating yourself up unnecessarily over an ex, as well as insight into being a female comic. Her stories so often lead you one direction before she sweeps the rug away, subverting the clichés with razor-sharp wit and brutal honesty, be the topic sex, drugs or meal deals. Previously, jokes about her nephew have been met with mixed reactions but Pattison argues we're living in a cotton-wool society and that we shouldn't be taking offence on behalf of the person a joke is directed at.

Aged 23, a youthful face means people often assume she's the sister or girlfriend of a comedian. Assume at your peril, as she herself proclaims, as with this hilarious and empowering debut hour, Lauren Pattison is going places.

Pleasance Courtyard, until 28 Aug (not 14), 5.45pm, £7.50–£10 (£7–£9.50).