Funny feline has a touch of class
Pictures: Independent Woman
• amfAR cinema against AIDS
• Celebration of the Arts Gala
• What to expect premiere London
• Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet
• Men In Black 3 London Premiere
By Eamon Sweeney
Saturday Nov 1 2008
Kitten Brides Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Maeve Higgins could have been permanently typecast as her desperate bride-to-be persona from the popular wind-up show 'Naked Camera'.
It's a testament to her talent and effortless stand-up prowess that there's much more to the Cobh girl's comic powers than wearing a wedding dress and acting the goat. The debut Irish outing of her 2008 Edinburgh festival show is delightful.
Higgins's new show lifts its title from Walter Potter's 'Museum of Curiosities in Cornwall'. Potter was an amateur taxidermist, placing stuffed animals in human situations such as squirrels in a classroom or kittens dolled up to be married.
The feline theme continues as Maeve displays photos of her pet cat Michael. Her delivery is personable and chatty and the audience instantly feels relaxed. A perceptive highlight is how Cork and Cobh people tend to use a one-word summation at the end of an anecdote or story, such as "delighted" or "mortified". She also mentions her hometown's only celebrities, Sonia O'Sullivan and the White Witch of Cobh.
The lack of cursing and crudeness is also a refreshing antidote to most modern stand-up, which far too often seems locked in a crass competition on who can be the most shocking. Her straightforward props perfectly compliment the show's gentle and friendly feel.
For the show's climax, Maeve does a hilarious parody of the alternate ending function on some DVDs, offering three conclusions to the end of a relationship. Higgins's surreal situationism might be odd and kooky, but it comes across as natural as a casual chat. It looks like Cobh might soon have a third bona fide celebrity.
- Eamon Sweeney
Latest celebrity sightings
