One of the many things that Edinburgh is associated with is comedy and as part of The Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I attended one such event. Wip It! at The Southsider pub has three comediennes playing (Jen Wakefield, Kirsty Mann and Isobel Rogers) who are very different from each other, yet complementary in style.
On the evening I attended, Jen Wakefield and Isobel Rogers were performing. In the case of Rogers, she sang a few songs from her show Elsa, which she performed at The Vaults early this year (https://breaking-the-fourth-wall.com/2018/02/16/elsa-vault-festival-review/). She will also be performing it in its entirety at Pleasance Dome during the latter half of this week.
While Rogers’ style is to perform observational, acoustic-based songs, Wakefield wears her love of ‘Urban’ music on her sleeve. As someone of mixed-heritage, Wakefield uses this as an ‘ice breaker’, which dovetails into her eclectic tastes in food and music.
Although she professes a love for the tunes of Drake and Grime music in general, Wakefield’s songs show an awareness of the tropes of the musical subgenre, pointing out their hilarious obsession with Nandos and ‘cousins’. While very much a Londoner, Wakefield represents the best of multicultural Britain – proud of her respective roots and appreciative of what everyone has to offer.
© Michael Davis 2018
Wip It! runs at Venue 148, The Southsider, 3-7 West Richmond Street, Edinburgh. EH8 9EF, 15th-25th August. (7pm)
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/wip-it
Isobel Rogers’ Elsa runs at Venue 23, Pleasance Dome, 1 Bristo Square, Edinburgh. EH8 9AL, 16th-19th August. (9.40pm)
Breaking The Fourth Wall 