Live Review: Katherine Ryan (Comedian) @ The Playhouse, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine 

I rarely go to see stand-up comedians live, but after catching her at Latitude last year and on shows like Mock the Week more times than I can remember, I decided to make an exception and check out the first of Katherine Ryan’s two sold out nights at Norwich Playhouse.

“Hi, I’m TV’s Katherine Ryan”, she introduces herself, “Yeah, that’s right, I got my name changed”, before launching a full-on assault at the world of pop culture. Taylor Swift, “friend to all women” gets a good bashing, as does Cheryl Cole, Bill Crosby – “you know who hates being asked if they’re a rapist? Rapists!” – and the Kardashians, to name a few. All in a days work for the self-confessed nastiest Canadian in the biz. The audience are thoroughly entertained from the start, save perhaps for the older members in attendance who are a little bamboozled by the barrage of jokes, hints and references to stars of TV and music.

The deadpan announcement “I’ve got a problem with Jews” ushers in the next phase of Ryan’s comedic battle, this time against the patriarchy. “Okay so I dislike one Jew but that’s how it starts… I don’t care what religion you are, if you think your dick is better than Christmas, I’m not fond of your attitude”. Ex-boyfriends are taken down one by one, gender roles with them, by Ryan’s wrath as a single Mum, anecdotes from her life with her two daughters diced in for good measure.

The evening ends with a faux wedding speech, one of Ryan’s many jabs at the “ordinary” folks back home, as well as her kooky sister’s fiancé, a man from the Philippines, where she’s more than unpopular after a clip from a certain panel show spiralled virally out of context.

The evening, like the Twitter references Ryan strategically sprinkles throughout, is short but sweet, packed full of juicy gossip and salty digs at the many assholes in her life, with a strong feminist ethos woven in cleverly for good measure. Katherine Ryan is surely one of the voices of this generation, and with a delivery that’s infectiously funny and impressively smooth, she’s surely in a strong position on the stairway to stardom.

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