Sofie Hagen: The Bumswing

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VENUE: Pleasance Dome

TIME: 7pm – 8pm, 31 Jul – 25 Aug, not 12

TICKETS: £10 – £14

After the debilitating toll of performing successive shows about her mental health, Sofie Hagen wanted to do a fun hour this year. But the best laid plans are for minds less capricious than hers. The Bumswing, her show title, doesn’t allude to a formative incident from her troubled childhood, but rather, to a be found), his latest—ostensibly a seminar on how to get rich quick—is far more tangential in nature, a loose structure on which Ewins can show off his full skill-set: mischievous videos, coding-based mischief, computer games and lo-fi CGI are all present. He’s done all of this before, but coming from such a weirdly vivid imagination it is still as hysterical as ever.

There are cameos once again from fellow performers Richard Gadd and Tessa Coates. The latter’s appearance coincides with one of the biggest laughs of the night, a slab of gross-out humour that’s equally artistic and innovative. Indeed it feels like Ewins’ has doubled down on the ‘tasteless’ stuff, making a virtue of an audience complaint from last year’s show. You’ll know where you stand on this – if it’s your bag you’ll howl, if you’re easily offended you’d be better off finding something else to pass the time.

A long-running joke about a children’s show commissioned and then rejected by the BBC pays off in an anarchic finale. You wonder if Ewins actually wants a career in TV. If he does, based both on the evidence of tonight’s show and his year-on-year consistency, surely he can have one.

✏︎ Craig Angus

trivial event that has nevertheless remained vivid in her memory; while other, seemingly far more important things have disappeared. There’s a tacit understanding that standups will embellish truth in the service of a story they’re telling. But what happens when a comic can’t be sure of the truth themselves, because of tricks played on them by their recollection?

At the heart of Hagen’s story is a sex holiday she took to Swansea. Agreed upon in a moment of daring spontaneity, the grim reality fell far short of her expectations. And the Danish comic rather fancies herself as a mythbuster, mocking Brits’ smug, self-satisfaction in their own politeness. And the pre-eminence of our Queen, with her homeland’s monarch far more rock ‘n’ roll and to Hagen’s nonconformist liking.

She is reasonably adroit at conveying her brain’s discombobulation and by turns impishly and bluntly funny. Yet The Bumswing grasps for and falls short of profundity, the mental behaviour it describes so incredible and extreme that it isn’t relatable.

With her finale in particular, Hagen attracts plenty of goodwill, not least as she’s a victim who doesn’t simply accept herself as such. But it’s not enough to stop this show feeling too idiosyncratic.

✏︎ Jay Richardson