14/08/2024 Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Centre was pealing apart with laughter last night as poet, comedian, one half of musical comedy sensation FEVER PEACH, and self-proclaimed ‘gap year wanker’ Scott Redmond performed her new solo show.
It is, primarily, a travel show told in poems. Redmond described the material as having been ‘bubbling’ in her head over her 10-month trip around the globe through places such as Pedang, Cairo, Rome, and many more. Audiences can anticipate a tender and witty account of the comedian’s travels as she contemplates identity and perspective upon the world- classic gap year patter, I know, but I swear it’s worth listening to.
From the beginning, Redmond delivers some of the signature energy that makes FEVER PEACH shows such a vibrant and enjoyable experience, indeed she is even joined onstage by bandmate Andy Bullock who provides a delightful accompaniment to the evening’s poetry. Throughout, the audience is in the palm of Scott who lays foundations of heartfelt poetry and subverts it into laughter with gleeful expertise. In conversation with The Magdalen, Scott made known her interest in audience psychology and her history with comedy reaching back to when she was 16 years old, which might explain why she is so skilled at moving a room. At times this subversion means that, as the audience, you find yourself complying and Redmond- jestingly- explained “it’s just bullying, it’s telling an audience what to do and then telling them off for doing it.”
Artfully done, at that. It’s the sort of comedy that invites you to be invested, in some small part involved, and the combination is something that stays with you long after the curtains are down.
Any fans of Fever Peach might have expected this meshing of philosophical pondering and belly-aching comedy, but ‘Gap Year Wanker’ showcases Redmond’s range as a solo performer in a different light. This was a show sat ponderously at the intersection of serious and silly, and what a delight that made it to watch. I might be biased as an English student, but Redmond’s careful turn of phrase and affecting poetry made this a particularly enjoyable experience.
The performance covers hilarious stories involving (completely metaphorical, depending on who is asking) drug use, having the ‘Bangkok experience’ in Bangkok, football shirts that leave lasting impressions, and teaching English to Korean businessman. With comedic charm rampant throughout, Redmond easily traverses from serious and poignant lyric to punchline that gets the audience right in the gut. The show takes you through museums, through sites of historical violence, through loneliness and feeling alien, through loving someone else and then returning to Dundee.
As a performer, Scott Redmond has said that she tries something new in every show (so you’d be silly not to get tickets to them all…), it is perhaps this ethos that has allowed her to develop an elasticity of performance that can keep a room on tenterhooks.
‘Scott Redmond: Gap Year Wanker’ is both solemnly introspective and absolutely daft, in the best way. I must imagine that has something to do with Redmond’s thoughtful writing and performance prowess that means whatever stage she takes, she finds herself there and the audience find themselves profoundly moved.
Scott is also performing in 'You Give Me Fever When You Peach Me, Fever When You Hold Me Peach. Fever! You Give Me Fever. Also We Are FEVER PEACH.' on the 21st September 2024, and in 'Dicebreaker: A Live D&D Adventure' on the 18th of September 2024.
Written by Hannah Linda Hamilton, Editor-in-Chief of The Magdalen
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