Jen Brister is British(ish)
Jen Brister @ The Tuxedo Cat – Green Room
7:15pm, Tue 1 Mar 2011
One word: fantastic.
There I was, moping away and struggling to deal with those little family crises that play on your mind when you’re not in any position to be able to address them; all felt gloomy in my mind. And Jen Brister managed to clear those dark, stormy clouds away with a perfectly-pitched display of stand-up comedy.
Jen is British, but is blessed with a Spanish mother (and gorgeous dark skin tone), resulting in her often being mistaken as not-British… and it is from this that a lot of her material is derived. Brister’s mimicry of her mother’s loud blustering directness – in stark contrast to the British norm – is comedy gold; the callbacks are frequent, but always welcome.
But Brister also delves into other aspects of British life – the national inclination to climb everything, and binge drinking culture (though she professes her pride in being able to drink well). As one might expect, she also takes the piss out of us Aussies as well, and there’s a bizarre story about her time working in a pornography focus group that is priceless.
Now, I love good British accent – I could listen to Brister talk all day – and when she amps up the volume and starts screaming (imitating nightclub girls), I’m completely won over. Throw in some lesbian jokes – including another callback to her mother – and I’m leaving the Green Room totally uplifted. Jen Brister absolutely nailed her set, and I’ll sing her praises to anyone who’ll listen.