By Ron Bingham
Another room too small (42 seats, I was told) to fit the audience the act deserves. The theme , The First Three Minutes of Seventeen Shows, is a clever way for Abby to tell her story in a variety of styles rather than a direct retelling.
We started with Abby relaxing the audience hypnotically into a acceptable state before being thrown into the first absurdist piece, entitled “The Vacuum”. From here, we went on a madcap journey through basketball mime, an old man trying parkour, “Scare The Banana” (my favourite) and more. The climax of the show, which started off as an essay on David Sedaris (harsh but fair – [sidenote; I recommend David Sedaris’ audiobooks for relaxing on long journeys]), but ended with Abby describing the trauma that led her to taking up stand up comedy a couple of years ago.
Abby is a very tall person from the USA somewhere in her 30s, who married a Dane and is now living in Denmark. She only started doing stand-up a couple of years ago, but was very confident on stage. Boy I am glad I wasn’t chosen to take part in the audience participation (how DOES one do “the worm”?).
This was the first show I can recall at the Edinburgh Fringe which received a spontaneous standing ovation at the end, so hats off to Abby and her director (who was in the audience). Well structured and a good mix of absurd and poignant. This should be moved to a bigger room, to ensure more people have the joy of watching a terrified fruit.
The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows is on at Pleasance Courtyard
until August 26
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/abby-wambaugh-the-first-3-minutes-of-17-shows