Sarah Millican @ Hammersmith (10 Nov)

Having seen her on TV, it was generally agreed that it would be good to see her live.  Our daughter duly obliged and booked some tickets.  So off to Hammersmith we went.  The theatre itself started it's life as a 1930's cinema.  It's been through a lot, no doubt, but is now in need of a facelift.  I do hope they remove the fly-paper floor coverings from beneath the seats.
Sarah starts slowly.  I was beginning to wonder when she would really get going, but get going she does.  By the time the interval arrived I'd all but forgotten the slow start.  The second half started as the first ended.
Her subjects are relationships and bodily functions.  Many of the jokes would keep an eight year old boy amused, but also work well with adults.  She is different from her TV appearance character.  The jokes are cruder, sometimes with a yuk factor thrown in.  Most notably there is prolific swearing.  She says she likes to swear.  Personally, I don't care what she likes - what she does needs to be funny, that's why I came to see her.  Swearing is NOT funny in its own right.  With one or two exceptions it did not enhance the comedy at all - so should probably be left out.  Especially in the second half there is a degree of audience interaction.  This leads some of the more outgoing ones (drunk ones?) to think they can take on the comic.  It really doesn't matter how she deals with this, insults, tirades etc all enhance the show - the audience in general is very much on her side, but the clever building of jokes against them is by far the best and really enhances the show.  We had one excellent example of that.
So, if you don't mind the subjects and the style you will find the shows very funny.  I'm glad I went, it was an enjoyable evening.