Katy Brand: I Was a Teenage Christian

Several interesting questions rear up from Katy Brand’s Edinburgh comeback show – her first for eleven years. What prompted this return? Why wallow in that particular period? And whatever happened to Daniel Bodkin, her wayward old classmate? He ends up as the unlikely star of I was a Teenage Christian, which is good going, given that he was up against God.

Brand became a familiar TV face during that Fringe-free decade, but admits that she hasn’t been on much recently – aside from unwittingly becoming “death correspondent” for Sky News, whenever someone famous checks out. So is this show designed to refresh her, er, brand? There may be deeper motives. It’s the tale of a teenager becoming the white sheep of her family by joining a funky (read: sinister) church, all Christian rock, crosses made from guitars, and the occasional exorcism.

The once bolshy teen throws herself wholeheartedly into the church’s work, even spreading the gospel at school. It doesn’t wash with Bodkin though, who hijacks their meetings in hilarious fashion. In fact, despite numerous excruciating incidents, the one moment Brand suggests might be the real reason for this soul-baring show is an exchange with a busy paramedic which ended with her piously announcing “because I am a Christian!” Hopefully it’s now out of her system.

Brand isn’t the most natural standup, and this is really just straightforward storytelling, no theatrical frills, which mightn’t work for a newer act, but she’s popular and personable enough to pull it off. Now, if Bodkin did an Edinburgh show, that really would be something.