DeAnne Smith Lacks Focus
DeAnne Smith @ The Tuxedo Cat
8:00pm, Wed 18 Mar 2009
I’ve raved before about DeAnne Smith; I think she’s a brilliant comic, with an ability to conjure humour out of rambling stories, and she seems as comfortable with overt puns as she does with tales requiring the audience to think. That all leads to an act that is wonderfully satisfying.
After the previous show at The Tuxedo Cat, the room is hot and nearly full. And that seems to be liberating for DeAnne; her style seems to be a bit more aggressive than last year’s performance, a little more daring. Sure, there’s some familiar material… but there’s also a plethora of new lesbian jokes, many more than I remember (“I went to the museum with my girlfriend… because I like having sex with her.”) And there’s a bit more variation, too – the love letter she used to close the show was touching, as well as amusing.
Sarah’s still delectable on the door, and (apart from Smith’s short-sleeved shirt, necessitated by the conditions) it’s very much a continuation of last year’s effort. And that’s no bad thing; I still love her scattergun approach to comedy, and the extra edginess made it all the more appealing.