Jojo Sutherland Goes for the Jocular

Jojo Sutherland is a real life grumpy old woman. While Kathryn Flett, Jenny Eclair, Wendi Peters and co. sit around waxing lyrical about cellulite and housework, this 44-year-old Scottish mother-of-four focuses her ire on more earthy subjects: teenage hoodlums, overprotective parents and her waning lager-drinking prowess.    

The Edinburgh-based comic makes good use of her working-class credentials and her family’s indebtedness ("we’re always one transaction away from bankruptcy") – though given the sparse lunchtime crowd, this Fringe show isn’t going to help the Sutherland family’s financial security much.

Likeable if more than a little crude, Jojo Sutherland specialises in ribald observations about family and domestic life; when your husband used to be your brother-in-law the latter is an unexpectedly rich comic seam. Riffs on the perils of Christmas chez Sutherland and her appearance on Channel Four’s Wife Swap are smart and incisive, unlike her gags about missing car keys and parking fines.

A veteran of the Fringe and part of the furniture at The Stand, Sutherland knows her way around a one-liner but struggles to flesh out decent material into a consistently funny full-length show. And when a couple of jokes fall flat her aggressive style threatens to veer into outright confrontation – at one point she demands a little too forthrightly to know if a couple near the front are sleeping together.

Sutherland is an undoubtedly a talented comedian but the grumpy old woman shtick is unduly limiting. A killer parting shot about sex education and jewellery only underlines what could have been.