As it’s title suggested Word by Julia Sutherland was a show concentrating on the English language and all it’s eccentricities. Through stand up, song and theatre Julia led us through the linguistic minefield.
As a stand up performer Julia was at ease on the stage, displaying confidence and a warm manner that has us glued to every word. It was structured as a relaxed lecture on language with many humorous examples and asides. She had obviously done her homework with all the definitions and descriptions of the topics she chose to explore but often resorted to direct quotes from the internet to illustrate her points without much follow up. Many were cliched examples and lacked a personal skew. Having heard these terms before (such as the ones for “Mondegreens” or misheard lyrics) lessened their impact, but when she did present something original or left of centre, the laughs were stronger.
Julia’s background in musical theatre is apparent in the way she handled the songs that populated the show. Accompanied by a guitar, she handled a number of different styles and communicated these tunes to the audience well. Often structured as parodies of popular tunes, the songs themselves were quite clever however they often didn’t contain enough variety in the ideas to fill their length with humour. This a trap that has plagued many others. More often than not, these over long tunes became repetitious and peetered out rather than ending with a bang.
The short theatrical segments in the show again suffered from the length vs content problem. In particular her “Brian Adams Psychology Session” that dragged on way too long, especially considering the single joke of the piece was given away in her set up.
The highlight of the show was her Spoonerism monologue that was witty but required great concentration to pick up on it’s subtleties. It seemed to be delivered at a rather quick pace (possibly opening night nerves) but we were eventually able to tune our ears to follow along.
Julia is one to watch in the future. Given time to develop material that befits her excellent command of the stage, she will have audiences eating from the palm of her hand.
Visit the comedy festival website for bookings and further details