Another random punt, a show I booked because I had a slot and it was in the area at around the right time and fitted my search criteria (comedy/cabaret/music + female). I'm really glad I did because Ms. McGathy was splendid.
Standing having a pint in the upstairs bar at the Counting House (getting twitchy because I had been told to wait in the bar rather than stand in line) a tall, striking woman walked up, brushed past me and asked for a glass of water. While not having seen her live before I had done my research online and immediately knew it was Erin McGathy. At this point I should have at least said hello, wished her luck or something ... I, of course, didn't.
Anyway ...
We filed in and the show started.
At this point I didn't realise I was in the middle of The Trilogy Of Terror - still quite shaken at young Ms. Fraser's show earlier. So was just looking forward to a bit of cheery light stand-up bantz. Ms. McGarthy started by saying she needed to pick three audience members - a boyfriend, a gay best-friend and the ghost of her dead mother. Sadly, despite sitting in the front row with these needy panda eyes she didn't pick me for any of these roles. The "boyfriend" got to perform a therapy scene on-stage with Erin, the other two were largely forgotten about. Perhaps in another show they would have been used. Anyhoo ...
Ms. McGathy is American, from San Diego (Yay! I have friends there) and the show's structure was a guided tour around her relationships starting from school and ultimately ending in ... well, I''ll get to that.
Lots of very funny (sometimes painful) anecdotes about early dating, early crushes, passion, romantic disasters (as ever I was forcefully struck by how much experience everyone else seems to have had) leading up to a detailed and serious examination about her relationship, marriage and divorce from Dan Harmon (when she said the name I misheard Dan Hartman and couldn't get "I Can Dream About You" out of my head). It went dark. Very. She took it to a dark place and suddenly she said something very touching and profound about agoraphobia, which really informed the whole rest of the day and I haven't been able to shake since, and the whole show took on a new meaning for me. She clambered back out of that one ... into the light and acceptance and redemption ...
And just as I thought it couldn't get darker, she went there. She told us about why the show is titled "Love You Loudly". Yep, dead Mums again ...
Oh, don't get me wrong. She was brilliant. Extremely funny, hugely engaging. Very intimate too - a tale about "desperation-sex-while-menstruating" was something I had never heard, and I thought I'd heard everything. Ruining her boyf's flatmate's pristine white cotton sheets was funny enough, but her soon-to-be-ex boyfriend being haemophobic was a cracking punchline.
I hadn't realised it was a pay-what-you-want show (as I'd already bought a ticket) so as we all filed out I grabbed what I had from my wallet (which wasn't that much), placed it in her bucket and said, "Thank you! Great show" and walked away.. I was heading from there to the Pleasance Courtyard and after two emotionally wringing shows I thought, "Well, the next one is about mental health and social deprivation so THAT WILL BE A BLAST!"
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