Magazine

Jessica Pidsley can make you thin(k)

Currently I’m feeling smaller and rounder than I have ever been in my life so a show that promises to ‘Make me Thin(k)’ has got to worth a punt!

I will save the full lip-smacking review until Jessica’s show has made it to Edinburgh but it’s always a pleasure to see a work in progress away from the frenzy of the Fringe, when there’s time to consider how it might develop over the months ahead.

There’s not so much of the diet advice, but plenty of the ‘throw caution to the wind and live your life’ type of stuff that we can all benefit from hearing! Jessica is clearly walking the talk having seemingly grown a foot taller, lost several stone and got herself a sharp new haircut since her flyer was printed a year ago for this show! Yet, small and round as I feel, this fascinated rather than intimidated.

There are parallels with Deborah Francis-White’s popular show, ‘How to get almost anyone to want to sleep with you’ in terms of Jessica’s slickness as a presenter, actor. I also had a flashback to seeing Miranda Hart’s first show in Edinburgh in 2004 – not because Jessica is like Miranda (except maybe in terms of height) but more to do with the way she has developed and produced this piece to best present her skills as a writer and performer. If Deborah or Miranda’s experiences are anything to go by, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Miss Pidsley in the years to come.

Jessica is clearly a talented actor and the show holds the audience’s attention with the combination of performance and multi-media. However, polish doesn’t always shine with British audiences and it was difficult to calculate whether this was clever stand-up or well-rehearsed stage craft at times.

There was a point in the show where Jessica appeared to forget her lines, but so slick was the recovery and banter to ‘get out of it’ (assuming there was an ‘it’ to get out of), I found myself wondering if she’d contrived this bit for effect.

I coincidentally heard Lee Mack on the radio today talking about his transition from stand up to actor in his television sit com, Not Going Out. and he had an interesting observation about actors turned stand-ups. There is an inverse snobbery about it because actors tend to learn their lines whereas stand ups improvise around their material and go with the flow. This seems particularly relevant to Jessica’s apparent forgetfulness. If indeed she was improvising, then she needs to make sure her audience know this! Talking yourself out of an artistic cul-de-sac is a very fine skill when you have 27 shows at Edinburgh ahead of you!

In the meantime go see for yourself. Jessica Pidsley’s 'I can make you thin(k)' can be seen at the Brighton Fringe Festival on Saturday 5^th May and Thursday 24^th May, 7.00pm Upstairs at Three & Ten.

Visit HERE for more details.

Lynne Parker.