In her show Vampire Teeth, Cath Styles explored aging and female body image while combing them with a vampire theme. It was odd that the concept of Vampire Teeth, which was used as a major selling point of the show, wasn’t introduced at the start. Instead she began with some general observational material on vampires and then into some gear on relationships. The connection of vampires to body image wasn’t made until some considerable time into the show.
It was unfortunate that the Technology Gods weren’t shining on this performance as she explained that a lot of her material featured PowerPoint slides. Ever the trooper, Cath plowed on regardless editing the show on the fly, discarding the bits that relied heavily on the images. Without the projections on the screen she found herself performing on a darkened stage which certainly didn’t help matters.
Having seen Cath perform successfully in shorter spots before, it was disappointing that this hour of stand up was rather patchy. Recognising that she didn’t have enough strong material to fill the hour, she made light of the situation by awarding a prize to an audience member who was the first to laugh at one of her “Red Headed Step Child of a joke”s. It was an interesting tactic that didn’t really fool anyone. The addition of the slides may have helped in strengthening some of the material but based on a few brief descriptions what we should have seen, this may not have been the case. The material often jumped around from one topic to something seemingly unrelated, but she did a good job of providing logical links to create a reasonably cohesive show.
On stage Cath has a warm and charming persona, displaying the cheeky cynicism of a suburban wife and mother. With a plenty of anecdotes and pop culture references, she aimed her material more towards the ladies in the room but gents were easily able to relate. She confidently delivered the material, regardless of audience reaction.
She had the habit of continuing way past the punchline on a number of occasions, ending on a whimper rather than a laugh. I noticed a couple of dated references that may be the sign of a little laziness but they got some laughs, proving that not everyone has short attention spans. Some bits, such as her one on eating placenta, went on for far too long without adding anything unexpected or different.
Cath sang a parody about cosmetic surgery as a finale. Her shakey singing voice combined with a mildly amusing parody unfortunately had the audience laughing at her more than laughing with her. It was a painful way of ending a rather disappointing show.
Visit the Comedy Festival Website for booking details.