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Review: Katherine Ryan / Max Edelman [opening act] The Apex




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Comedy at The Apex took on a decidedly North American flavour last night.

New Yorker Max Edelman, winner of the Foster’s Award for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival, opened for Katherine Ryan, marrying classic NYC Jewish smarts with a deft political nous.

Running through a smart, self deprecating set, the audience laughed at his personal stories about being brushed off by Neil Armstrong in a lift; his body building twin brother (‘we’re like a before and after ad’), and the intrusive thoughts which plagued him before he shook hands with Obama.

Katherine Ryan is a girl from Sarnia, a Canadian town so bleak Louis Theroux may well be on his way there with a documentary team. Her stories of a homespun sister with an accent straight out of the Woodcraft Folk were set against a series of deliciously icy sharp take-downs: Cheryl Cole and Taylor Swift; a dog called Cosby and a not-sleeping rabbit, and that time Peter Andre was not so nice.

Her comedy is not rent-a-bitch but instead shines an uncomfortable spotlight on our obsession with celebrity.

All in all, this was a dazzling, hilarious and relentless piece of social commentary.

Nicola Miller