Comedy Review: Bravetarts

 Bravetarts
 Edinburgh Fringe Till 28 August

 STAR RATING: 5/5
 




This show is lewd, crude and very rude. And I loved it, writes Mark Drinkwater.
 
Liz Carr and Tanyalee Davis are one-third of the award-winning performers from Abnormally Funny People, who represent the cream of the emerging international disabled comedy. This year, Carr and Davis are back at the Edinburgh Festival with a neat double act.

Their performance makes fun of themselves, celebrities, disabled people, the audience. Davis is a professional stand up. She’s only 3 feet 6 inches tall and makes light of her height from the outset: “When people see me for the first time they tend to go ‘Wooah, look at the tits on that five-year-old!'”

The name Bravetarts must have been chosen to endear themselves to festival goers north of the border.

Earlier this month I saw a London preview and Braveheart actor Mel Gibson had been arrested for various indiscretions – thereby providing our comedy twosome with plenty of topical material.

Both gifted, they are very different in their approach. Davis is the typical happy-go-lucky cheeky stand-up, whereas Carr is a darker more cynical sit-down comedian: “Don’t you just hate those paralympians? Whizzing around in their wheelchairs, making the rest of us look lazy.”

The highlight of the show features our hosts picking on an able-bodied member of the audience to try and guess the use of various disability aids.

And so since it was also educational and entertaining – it ticked all my boxes.

Mark Drinkwater is a community worker in Southwark, south London.