Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Sharon Wanjohi: In The House
Sharon Wanjohi
Genre: Comedy
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard Bunker Two
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Fierce, filthy and heartfelt. A gleeful hour of comedy with a real emotional punch.
Review
Sharon Wanjohi needs money. She makes no bones about it and believes she has found a way to make it happen. Perhaps it is the manifestations and slightly absurd affirmations but in an enlightened moment, she knows she needs to write a self-help book. You know… because as a person she just totally has it all together right now.
Spoiler – she does not. (Not really a spoiler, she tells you this in the opening spiel)
To ease us in and make us all friends, there is some excellent crowd work. Very light-hearted fun is poked at various people’s jobs, social status and relationships. She is very good at this, setting up that the show is going to be risky, foul-mouthed and filthy and that’s ok. The laughs come thick and fast.
What follows, structurally, are excerpts of the self-help book – dynamically priced based on how wealthy the audience look – mischievously read and reflected upon. Therein lies the meat of the hour. Wanjohi doesn’t rely solely on the book to wring out the laughter, though the book itself when read is highly amusing, striking that perfectly poncy guru-esque tone and at the same time highly subversive. Instead she lulls us into a place where we believe she is the kind of comedian who will revel in wicked mischief when she sucker punches us with some genuine feeling.
Sharon Wanjohi: In The House is not just about the difficulties of trying to buy a house, have kids and get by in this self-obsessed, crazy world; it is also about grief and the knock on effect it has on you. How you change, how you learn to hold onto what makes you happy and ultimately, how to remain authentic to yourself. It never gets too much. The moments that may be about to make you feel truly sorry for her are quickly punctured with a joke and we move on.
This feels like a comedian who is ready to catapult into bigger things. She has a constant glint in her eye, a quick wit and held the audience in the palm of her hand. Wanjohi isn’t just in the house – she’s about to own whole street!
