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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
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Seamless

Diane Spencer

YouTube · 2017 · 60 min

A polite Englishwoman tells very dirty, pitch-black jokes.

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Diane Spencer’s performance thrives on contrast, combining polite, middle-class poise with a streak of filthy, pitch-black storytelling. Her seventh solo hour centers on her sudden transition into step-motherhood, treating her new husband’s children as a trial run for the real thing. She delivers crude punchlines with a pleasant, sunny disposition, keeping the audience off-balance as she cheerfully spikes her domestic anecdotes with pitch-black humor.

Filmed at Castle Comedy Club in Bedford’s Ents Shed, the show follows Spencer’s recent marriage to a fellow comic. Her material steers clear of cozy domesticity. Her mother routinely suggests she give up comedy to start her own clothing line, while her father communicates in bizarre acronyms. Other bits cover Russian weight-loss tips, David Attenborough nature documentaries, and the logistics of a guinea pig burial.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Integrating into life as a stepmother to two teenage girls

    Comically pretending not to like them, messing around with their names, and joking that they serve as a trial run for the real thing.

  2. Spencer's mother and father

    Detailing her mother's distinct lack of support and her father's bizarre acronyms and nonsensical rhyming slang.

  3. Dressmaking and sewing attempts

    Recounting making ill-fitting dresses that looked like hospital muumuus before eventually making a shiny gold quilted bolero for her wedding.

  4. Her Russian friend and Bangladeshi sweatshops

    Caustic jokes and accent mimicry that generated audible intakes of breath from the audience.

How it plays

Tone
Jet-black, caustic, explicit, and dark yet warm and lighthearted.
On stage
Livewire, explicit, daft, ballsy, and personable with a caustic edge and a twinkle in her eye.
Pace
Flows smoothly from section to section as silk, delivered with engaging storyteller tempo.
About
parenthood and stepchildren, family and marriage, dressmaking and sewing, parents' eccentricities

What the critics said

Critically praised as a well-crafted, hilarious, and smoothly flowing hour of caustic and jet-black storytelling that manages to balance sharpness with warmth and charm.

In the room: Fully engaged crowd, with sharp material drawing occasional audible gasps and intakes of breath.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.m.wikipedia.org, chortle.co.uk, theskinny.co.uk, list.co.uk, one4review.co.uk, comedy.co.uk, beyondthejoke.co.uk.

Backstory

Spencer recently married comedy director Kevin Shepherd and became a stepmother to his two teenage daughters, while taking up sewing and dressmaking as a personal hobby.

Details

Released
Taped
The Ent Shed, Bedford
Runtime
60 min
Where
YouTube
Honors
The Skinny (4 stars)BroadwayBaby.com (4 stars)ThreeWeeks (5 stars) and 1 more
Topics

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