Anna Burnside reviews a ‘raw and personal’ performance filled with ‘warmth, charm and comedic skills’.
Beneath a cloud of bath puffs, Alison Spittle is wearing a jaunty sequined shorts-and-top combo. She is, she explains, embracing being fat.
Well upholstered funny women have been covering this ground since Jo Brand first braved the neanderthals of the Comedy Store in the 1980s, and her thoughts on Lizzo’s shrinkage and how Shrek is hot are good but not unexpected.
The gear change comes when Spittle has a serious health scare. This, while clearly horrible to experience, gives her great material. She plays us the unhinged voice note she left informing friends why she had posted a picture from her hospital bed.
Mini-spoiler: it does not explain why she was in the hospital bed.
What happens next is raw and personal but Spittle’s warmth, charm and comedic skills mean it’s still very funny.
Slimming World’s Syns point system, where cooked goose is more synful than raw, is particularly strong.
Body image and weight is shaping up to be a theme of this year’s Fringe, and this is a masterclass in how to turn it into comedy.
Alison Spittle: BIG is at Monkey Barrel Comedy (Monkey Barrel 1) at 16:45 until August 24, 2025 (no performance on August 12th).
Photo by Karla Gowlett.
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