Lou Sanders
Another Great Show Again
Soho Theatre, London
November 27-29, 2014
by Joanna Orland
A show bookended by sweetness, Lou Sanders’ Another Great Show Again takes its time get to the core interesting ideas. At first I thought perhaps I found Sanders difficult to warm to as I, clearly a self-hating woman, sometimes don’t connect to female comedians as much as I do to male. [Insert clichéd article about “Are Women Funny?“] As most of my favourite comedians are actually female, after writing an entire article on the gender politics of comedy, I have deleted it and realized that this was not my problem at all with Sanders. A problem that I eventually got over as the comedian found her footing about halfway through her set.
It was at this turning point midway through that Sanders thrived in her bizarre surrealism, leaving the egocentric and personal jokes to fade into the background. With Sanders, as charming as her personality is, her humour lies solely in the surreal and abstract material. There are so many good ideas here, more time should be spent on them! A talking vagina, a genderless persona, Harlequin romance novel excerpts, a fruit & veg calendar photo spread, a ridiculously awesome finale – these are the things that define Sanders’ comedy. Sadly, the first half felt lacking in these concepts with too much focus on her personality quirks, egocentricity and haplessness.
Normally it’s the personal side of comedy people connect to for its relatability. Sanders seems lovely off stage, don’t get me wrong, but just a bit unfunny and a tad grating when not doing something completely insane on stage. For some reason, my friend and I did not connect to Lou Sanders as an onstage persona, but we sure loved her as a high energy surrealist.