Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Kelly Bachman: Patron Saint
Kelly Bachman
Genre: Comedy
Venue: Assembly @ Front Room
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Not for the faint of heart, Kelly Bachman: Patron Saint is unflinching comedy about her brush with viral fame, rape and how we respond to it, and whether or not she predicted 9/11 (spoiler alert: she totally did). Bachman’s soft-spoken comedic style in juxtaposition with the subject material is dizzying and effective. It’s the type of show trigger warnings were made for, but within the discomfort is a genuinely funny act if you’re willing to laugh at it.
Review
There’s an old chestnut that says tragedy plus time is comedy. This is perhaps too reductive for Kelly Bachman: Patron Saint. The comedy is there, the question is whether or not the audience is ready for it. Bachman is soft-spoken and leans into her awkwardness, so it’s easy to expect her comedy might match the Zooey Deschanel vibe presented to us. Not so: Bachman’s comedy is full of sharp edges, harsh realities, and moments that make you laugh but then wonder if you are a terrible person for laughing.
The trend in comedy lately has been, as Elaine Malcolmson recently said in her act Joik, forty-five minutes of comedy and then you do the sad bit. Pioneered by Tig Notaro and Hannah Gadsby, this style has bred its hits and misses, and this year, stand-ups are figuring out how to subvert and play on the theme. Bachman has done this by refusing to give us the sad bit at all. We are not finessed, or courted with jokes and then gently guided into the Tough Bits. Mentions of rape come hard and fast and don’t stop for the duration of the show. If, reading back that sentence, you feel there might be something indelicate in my choice of wording, this show might not be for you.
Bachman rose to viral fame when she called out convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein at a live show in Brooklyn. Her show bombed, but her name blew up, resulting in interviews and think-pieces for the New York Times and the Guardian. She acknowledges how easy it would be for this to have gone the other way, how if it had been someone more well-liked than Weinstein, she might not have gotten the okay from the media to be one of the Good Victims.
Some of the funniest moments of the hour are the ones where even Bachman seems to wonder if this one is going too far. She never insists on anything with her audience, always in conversation with them to gauge what sort of things will go over well and which will not. Her presence is disarming and dry, and by the time you get three-quarter through and think you might be desensitized, she throws on her vestments and makes a knock-knock joke I genuinely worry will send me to hell for laughing as hard as I did.
Although the largest part of the show is rape related, Bachman goes into hilarious diversions about Catholicism, the early days of internet cat-fishing, and whether or not as a child she predicted 9/11 (spoiler alert: she totally did). The relatability in these moments, and the ease with which she works with the audience, make the sharper-edged jokes that much more effective. You can’t shy away from the idea of how many women are sexually assaulted when confronted with it in such a straightforward, unapologetic way. As tired as she may be at times of having to be the Maybe She’s Born With It: Maybe It’s Trauma poster girl, there is deep value to be had in Bachman expressing herself how and where and when she chooses. In a lot of ways, it’s more thought provoking and effective than if she had given us forty-five minutes of jokes leading up to a sad bit. Rape is hard to talk about, Bachman knows. It can be harder to laugh at. If you see Kelly Bachman, even if its despite yourself and everything you think you stand for, you will.
Kelly Bachman: Patron Saint is at Assembly Front Room through 25 August at 7:45 pm.
