Reviews to help you through the hit-or-miss loveliness that is the Calgary Fringe Festival

The Cockwhisperer

Posted by Kathleen Renne in Fast Forward Fringe Blog

The Cock Whisperer — A Love Story, Old Garry Theatre
 
Put simply, this show sucked.  Pardon the pun; my attempts at humour are as bad as Colette Kendall's, the creator and star of the one-woman show.  I feel bad saying this, because Kendall seems like a nice person, but she just doesn't seem comfortable with her own show. 

She tries too hard to be funny and provocative, her delivery is off and, I think, the show suffers from some "poor me" syndrome.   When she throws in material about an abusive marriage — in some ways among the best and most sincere parts of the show — it doesn't jive well with the overall tone of the play.  Nor do I find humour in an adult woman trying to elicit laughs by telling of a Grade 4 boy's understanding of his male organs.  Something about that just seems exploitative.  To be fair, however, there were some people in the audience who were laughing their heads off throughout the entire thing.  The other thing is, Kendall makes references to late-'70s pop culture which, I'll admit, went over my head; I may have lost some opportunities for laughs there. 

This is a "skip it" show, unless you find the premise of talking about "the cock" — and watching Kendall open the show with a rubber one - irresistible.

-Kathleen Renne


more in Theatre     |     posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 12:47pm     


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