REVIEW: Amy Mason: Behold!, EdFringe ★★★★

After Amy has strode on stage and taken the mic, she begins in a manner of almost confusion and intense eye contact with the audience. This knocks you of kilter at the start but as the show begins to unravel her persona starts to match the strangeness and confusion that comes out of the stories.

Amy starts by telling us about the card and parcel that arrived in the post just before Christmas last year. The card is from her mother, the parcel she doesn’t know who sent or remember ordering as once opened she tells us that is contained 3 rather large adult toys. It’s from here that the tone is set and the confusion continues.

Early on the audience learns that the entirety of the events of the show we’re about to hear occurred during a period of time when she was off her medication. This then starts to make the confusion and intense eye contact make sense as clearly now that she is back on the medication even Amy feels confused by the whole events that unravelled.

From attempting to buy guinea pigs to the NHS thinking she’s clinically insane this show never lets up in its weirdness as each story begins to outdo the previous one. You almost want to not believe any of it but she tells it with such intensity it begins to feel like a fever dream as Amy’s persona never lets up. This persona helps to maintain the tension throughout the show which in turn makes the jokes start to land even harder when Amy inserts them into the story surprising you at every turn.

Each joke has clearly been thought through very carefully and the placement is precise to never let the tension go too far and keep the audience just relaxed enough. For each punchline Amy chooses a specific audience member to make intense eye contact to really underline the joke as almost watching someone react to the thing that she said is just as funny as what she is saying.

In a very funny hour Amy revels in bizarreness and the impact of not having access to the medication you need in order to remain sane. The lack of sanity has spiralled into a great show.

Recommended Drink: A martini, you’ll need something strong for this.

You can catch Behold! at Baby Grand at Pleasance Courtyard until the 24th August, every day at 17:50. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.