Kerry Gilbert Triumphs

Since Seinfield it seems to be the ultimate dream of a standup comedian to star in a sitcom loosely based on their own life. It’s the case with Kerry Gilbert whose show is a scrappy one-woman enactment of how this might go. But strangely she almost entirely excises her own character from Kerry Gilbert Triumphs. Instead it jostles with stereotypes, one-note family members and thinly caricatured nemeses.

The sitcom follows Gilbert moving back in with her parents after a disastrous Fringe run two years ago. In a series of ticklish character monologues she’s intermittently cajoled by her over-bearing mother—fantastically animated through Gilbert’s madly expressive eyes—leered at by sleazy ex-squeeze ‘Gary Tits’, and intimidated by pregnant and over-accomplished school friends. 

When Gilbert does give herself the starring role it’s sadly sexed-up. She arrives on stage to the Baywatch theme and strips clumsily into a red bikini. Later she performs the “greatest thing she’s ever written”; a racy routine amusingly involving gherkins and Serge Gainsbourg. 

Gilbert’s childhood heroine still watches over the show from centre-stage—a gaudy pop-star doll called Jem—is perhaps the reason she panders to female stereotypes. Vulnerable, self-deprecating, bitter at her ex and bullied by her family – it all colours a cliched self-portrait of the 30 year-old. 

She's charming, a talented mimic, and has a CV of TV credits to her name. She needs to act a version of herself that does justice to the facts for a genuine triumph.