[2015103] Jenny Collier: Love in the Time of Collier
Jenny Collier @ Austral Hotel – The Bunka
10:30pm, Mon 2 Mar 2015
I didn’t really know what to expect from Jenny Collier… and not many others were keen to investigate, either. With a crowd that would have struggled to hit double-digits – two small clumps of drunken punters, plus me – Collier swishes onto the stage like a breath of fresh air.
A lot of Collier’s material is familiar ground for a female comic – relationship hassles, tales of singledom, societal pressures to have children – but it’s her delivery that sets her apart. If you only knew her act by the text of the jokes – taking away her gorgeous voice and appearance – you’d imagine that she was a filthy-mouthed school class clown. And she owns her crudity, too, as she describes how she scares men away with her unladylike speech (“Where’s the shitter?… Sorry, where’s the ladies shitter?”), and the fact that she’s usually the first person to drop the C-Bomb (…at a wedding).
There’s more laughs to be had at her Welsh heritage, the dissonance between her age and young appearance (“Is your mummy home?”), and some fantastic jokes gleaned from her work in a fertility clinic. And Collier’s methods for introducing farting into a new relationship? Fantastic.
Jenny Collier was a real surprise packet. She has a ferocious wit, a wonderfully cunning way with words, and an utterly brutal self-deprecation mechanism. And, better yet, she didn’t outstay her welcome, with a perfectly timed and weighted set.
(103) Jenny Collier- Love in the Time of Collier: Gloriously unexpected jokes of singledom & sex. Wicked way with words. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) March 2, 2015