As you well know by now we’re regular visitors to The Stand and I always love the laid back intimate atmosphere – after all, who doesn’t love to laugh? I’d never heard of Eleanor Conway before but after being offered tickets to see her in my home town, in my favourite venue, I did a bit of research via YouTube and loved what I saw.
Her debut tour ‘Walk of Shame’ talks about her previous life as an alcoholic, drug user and all round both end candle burner in graphic painful (yet hilarious) honesty. She’d wanted to be a comic for years and knew that she’d have to sober up if she were to succeed. Walk of Shame was a huge success which saw her perform at the Edinburgh Fringe and sold out venues across the country. Her follow up tour ‘Walk of Shame 2,’ follows suit.
She picks up where she left off on the last tour telling stories about her previous life and also introducing us to the escapades of her and her mate Jenny (I’ll leave you to figure out who Jenny is for yourself) so there’s very much and element of replacing one addiction for another here. She’s sharp, witty, sassy, self-deprecating and extremely funny. She interacts with the audience well, not in a way that makes you feel picked on or uncomfortable (but perhaps that’s because I felt like with all this talk about booze, she was someone who was speaking my language?).
The only slight let down was that it wasn’t a huge audience (perhaps about 20 people max) which normally is great because you feel like you’re just sitting listening to a friend but in the case of stand up comedy you don’t get the infectious ripple of laughter that comes with a larger audience. That didn’t stop me trying to create that ripple myself of course because having seen many a more established comedian at the Stand, I think Eleanor could absolutely hold her own.
Comedy is so subjective and if you’re someone who isn’t a fan of the odd swear word and a bit of sex talk then she probably isn’t for you, however (channelling my best inner Carrie Bradshaw) I can’t help but wonder whether if it were a man talking about his sexcapades, no one would raise an eyebrow (and there were a few raised eyebrows from a couple of the older members of the audience). I, however, thought she was great, especially in a profession so dominated by men, we need more women on stage waving the flag for veet users everywhere (if you know, you know).