So Alice was very much on my radar for the last year or so. I had seen she premiered a new show, "Resistance", down in Australia and when I saw she was coming back to the Fringe to perform that show that was one of the first tickets I bought. You can read my review of "Resistance" elsewhere, suffice it to say I thought it was marvelous.
FULL DISCLOSURE - her "Resistance" show was in the Wee Room at the Gilded Balloon. When I arrived - bear in mind I am so OCD if I'm not in line at least 25 minutes before the start I get nervous - she was standing outside the venue chatting to a couple of attendants as the previous show in the room had yet to finish. I immediately recognised her, walked towards them then turned right and stood quietly and furiously stared at my phone at the Gilded Balloon entrance. I couldn't even say hello and chat. Feckin' idiot ..
Anyway, after the show she said to the audience she was doing a week revival of her "Savage" show at the City Cafe as part of the Free Festival, starting on Sunday. That immediately was scheduled on to the diary (given I tend to eat breakfast/brunch there most days anyway, but also she is fantastic).
This was the first performance of "Savage" for a while (looking online it may have been May since she last performed this one but could well be wrong) so she charmingly chatted to the small audience about how this was rusty and this was almost a preview - she had printouts all over the stage floor and there were problems with the lighting in the venue that she apologised for ... but, to be honest, all the wee teething troubles just made it better.
Also an interesting insight into Fringe performers if you're not fully up to speed. They do lots of things - not just their "headline" show, they do free shows, turn up at panel chats, compere best-ofs ... as well as all the setup and tear-downs, travelling, etc. etc. The skill is to appear all slick and calm on the surface ...
After this incredibly long-winded introduction you might be thinking "Just review the fucking show Mikey!". And that's where I start to run out of superlatives and smarts. This show was the first of three-in-a-row which I'm informally calling the Trilogy Of Terror - three shows which hit me fair-and-square where it hurts. The main theme of this show was about Alice's dead Mum - she played various interview snippets with her Mum through the show, recorded in the weeks before her death. Her Mum had been diagnosed with MS from before she was born so she had only ever known her Mum ill (while still being a vibrant, skilled and loving human). She was writing and preparing a new show for the Melbourne Comedy Festival the previous year when the call came ... and in four days re-wrote that show to be about her late Mum - which is what "Savage" became.
Oh, it's not morbid. As ever it goes all over the place, touches on various topics, Ms. Fraser sings and plays the banjo (very well) and muses philosophically on the infinite. There are some proper laugh-out-loud moments and very open and honest anecdotes about Ms. Fraser's early dating life. It's a cliche to say "I laughed! I cried!" but that's pretty true. A harsh, brutal, intimate but ultimately wonderful celebration of life and the opportunities it presents. Yes, I was shattered after it, but in a good way.
It's the Free Festival so as you file out there is the anticipation that you will make a donation - at that point I couldn't give her enough. She was giving out hugs and thanks to the audience as we filed out. We hugged. It was nice. But as I walked out into the (for once) sunlight I thought "Well, that was a brutal start to the day. It'll get cheerier from here ..."
I was wrong.
Just as an aside, while waiting for the show to start I think I experienced Maximum Hipster - a bearded youth holding a green space hopper emblazoned with a Space Invader ...
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