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Suzi Ruffell: Dance Like No-One's Watching
Summary
A joyous funny hour of stand-up, exactly what the Fringe is for.
At the top of her show this year, Suzi Ruffell warns us that she’s happy, and that a happy comedian is bad news for the audience. Thankfully, she spends the next hour proving this thesis frighteningly wrong.
Having eagerly followed Ruffell’s career for the past several Fringes, you can feel the shift in the tone of the material this year, with everything having a much more positive vibe. Routines about happy-tear-inducing Pride moments, the decision to have children, and her recent engagement are all so beautifully cheerful, yet still aching funny for it. Rarely have I seen an hour with so many applause breaks, so many bellows of almost pained laughter.
There is a new joy in the performer’s step here, and it is potently contagious. There are almost too many notably brilliant routines to pick a couple out for the purpose of this review, but the segment on Ruffell’s mother hiding the fact that her girlfriend has asked for permission to propose, or the ‘gay flight’ to New York Pride are both beautifully weighted and composed. In a troublingly warm Pleasance room, you would expect dips or lulls in the energy from both performer and audience, but never is this the case, and the hour is a raucous joy the whole way through.
There really isn’t too much to say here. The show contains no great startling revelation, or deep dark personal journey, this is simply one happy person making a room full of other people happy, and being strikingly hilarious whilst they do so. Glorious.
Dance Like Everyone’s Watching runs until the 25th of August – buy tickets here.
@SuziRuffell
Scott Redmond
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