Lauren Pattison: It Is What It Is

From the joy and hope of 2019 to the mental shift which spanned the world in 2020, Lauren Pattison figures out how to cope with it all, exuding the perfect attitude of "it is what it is."

Lauren Pattison: It Is What It Is

Pattison's 2020 plans for a UK tour and getting engaged were dashed, and thus her Edinburgh Fringe show was born. Its conception mirrors her message perfectly – that it is what it is, and when things go "wrong", we can make them go right again. Full of energy, she urges us to make the best out of bad situations, and laugh about them too! She narrates her path of moving home and working in a supermarket, and whilst she may have swapped comedy for customer service, she also swapped despair for hope. Lauren's world is one where there is no real failure, as a "step backwards" is really just a "step sideways" in disguise. 

When Pattison flippantly joked "get you a girl who can do both", she was referring to her Northern accent and retail job, alongside her ability to make jokes on etymology (and a particularly good one at that, as she rebutted a "friends" claim that the c-word is un-feminist by noting that the word "vagina" comes from the latin of sword sheath.) She cleverly dismantles classist stereotypes with ease and humour, showing us all that Northern girls are more than what Geordie Shore shows us.

This show lets its audience laugh through the pain and struggles of Covid, anxiety, and isolation, as she thrusts us into the all too familiar world of failed relationships and "mean girls" in friendship groups. But she also offers us an escape!

The great escape plan? Be yourself.

At the crux of her jokes is a message to embrace who you are - the funny, the ugly, the steps forward, and the steps sideways. The only way to truly follow the mantra of "it is what it is", is to "be who you are." Accents, class, wealth, and hobbies... these things are only worth what we attribute to them. Something we learnt from the story of Pattison's ex-boyfriend, who denied being posh despite all the mansion and money to the contrary. Pattison is breaking out of the Geordie Shore Northern steroetype, releasing self doubt and anxiety, and embracing herself fully!

Author

Kashmini Shah

Kashmini Shah Contributor

A Politics and English Literature graduate based in London, working in Publishing. Kashmini has written for Voice Mag and Chortle at the Edinburgh Fringe, and is a winner of the Malorie Blackman Scholarship for Creative Writing, where she works on a fantasy and a crime novel. She likes to write on a variety of topics, from book reviews, to engaging with feminist discourse in the media.

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