Hot Pink Bits Rides Again (FringeTIX)
Penny Ashton @ Fringe Factory (The Pastry Bakery)
10:30pm, Sat 23 Feb 2008
I saw Penny Ashton’s original Hot Pink Bits (oo-er) late in my 2006 assault, but I still remember being charmed by the laughs, titillation, poetry and song on offer. When I met Penny a week or so ago though a friend, I also had the impression that I’d been a “volunteer” during her show (though my above notes don’t mention that – odd).
So I find myself re-visiting the Pink on a Saturday night – along with a metric shitload of other people; The Pastry Bakery, a temporary and I’m-not-convinced-it’s-safe venue within the Fringe Factory, was packed – maybe 100-150 people, if I had to guess. And it’s a happy and receptive crowd that welcome Penny to the stage – gorgeous costume, and a jubbly cleavage that just begged for nestling.
A bit of a slow start, but she’s quickly into the swing of things, interspersing longer informational tracts with songs, short little Love Tips, and faux phone-sex recordings. Whilst there’s some hearty laughs to be had in the heavily researched bits – the delving into fetishes, in particular, was fantastic – the best laughs were when Ashton got the audience involved.
The first instance involved Carl, who was enlisted to help Penny deliver a 70’s-inspired porn scene. That, in itself, was a hoot, but the coup de grâce was when Carl, on leaving the stage, muttered “Not bad for a gay guy, eh?”
The audience recovered from their gut-laughs before Penny did ;)
Later, an elderly gent put on a sterling strip show for us – he was born for the role. And there were plenty of freebie flavoured condoms during the audience quiz, which had the crowd yelling out “penis!” and “vagina!” in lieu of buzzers. Great fun.
In fact, the only flat spots in the show were the songs – which, in themselves, were fine, it’s just that the laughs-per-minute ratio drops while they’re being performed. Which is a bit of a shame really, since the songs & poetry were quite impressive in the last appearance of the Pink Bits. Still, I’d be surprised if anyone left that show without a smile on their face and an inclination to try something new when they got home.