Review by Tony Frame. Venue 14. Gilded Balloon Teviot – Lounge

★★★★☆

Oh. My. God. What did I just witness? One hour of stand-up comedy from Gabby Killick, obviously. But the actual experience of it is very difficult to put into words. Her show was like an amusement park (of comedy). I can explain it to you with my sentences and my use of adjectives, but you won’t really feel any of the real impact of it until you actually buy a ticket and take a ride on Gabby’s weird and wonderful show. Some of it was deeply unsettling yet brilliantly funny at the same time, and some of it was so unexpected that I almost peed my pants from laughing and sniggering, crying and cringing.

Now Wednesdays are a hump day. So it’s probably not the greatest of days for audience turnouts at the Fringe. Certainly there were a few empty seats at Gabby’s show (I honestly think she would have been better served with a late-night slot), but when she came onto the stage and grabbed that mic she lit up the room like she’d just won the lottery and was going to share her winnings with all of us. Her energy from the outset was on another level. Her audience interaction was masterfully executed and incorporated, and was funny as fu**. Not only does Gabby tell a multitude of jokes and sketches, she also raps and has musical interludes that are choreographed to perfection. But wow, does she go to places with her comedy that I did not expect: abortion, cancer, even current tragedies in the news! I’ve not seen such risqué sketches like this since watching Bill Hicks on DVD. And that is not some hyperbolic bull that I’m peddling here; I’ve seen a bunch of comedians at the Fringe over the years, and Gabby’s comedy trumps a lot of them.

Now there were a few jokes and punchlines that didn’t work as well as they should have (hence 4 stars as opposed to 5), but for those that failed to hit the mark they were quickly forgotten about by the gags that went above and beyond the realms of hilarity and bad taste. The app sketch was genius! The diseases sketch was wickedly off the wall! It was comedy brilliance at its best. Gabby Killick is one of the freshest and most daring and innovative comedians I’ve seen in years.