Mary Beth Barone, the youngest of six, always wanted to be on TV. From videos and photos that her dad recorded of her idyllic 90s childhood, it’s clear that she loved the spotlight from a young age. No childhood memory is spared, from modelling pics in the bathroom on film to excerpts of her post-9/11 poetry. The video compilation that kicked off the show really did its job in giving us a taste of this silly little girl, with clips of Barone falling down a soft play tower and doing a report on the birds in her chimney.
Barone dives into her dating history, being her parents' favourite child and of course, learning about The Cold War as an adult. She has this hilarious way of delivering lines with a completely straight face and some of the jokes were so dry that you can’t tell whether she’s being serious or not. There were some points where she was on the line of maybe going too far, but she always managed to pull it back. Her performance was hysterical and she has the confidence and style to pull off the craziest of stories, without even batting an eye.
But underneath the silly and the weird, the show was so well put together to create a subtly cutting commentary on patriarchy and the sexualisation of young women in the arts. She criticises everything from fuckboys, Christianity and biphobia- and I enjoyed all of it.
For tickets and more information, visit edfringe.com
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