Reviews!
kennysmovingstuff – 18 Aug 2013, 11:25am
Charmian Hughes: Odd One In
This woman was phenomenal! She was so funny and so inviting. We were passing her venue and she asked if we knew where we were going because she didn’t want to poach other people’s audiences! other people were a little late and she just caught them up on the action so far and got on with it. I’m still laughing at the book of poems to horse she gave the audience at the end. fantastic!
Leicester Mercury
Appearances can be deceiving. Diminutive Charmian Hughes may look like butter wouldn’t melt, with girly-girl ribbons on her boots, but look out.
Her 50-minute set is shot through with a humour darker and more bitter than a bar of Green & Blacks 85%.
You’ve got to admit it takes a certain kind of charm to pull off a routine telling how you leveraged your brother’s death to become the most popular girl in school.
It is sick? Yep. Does it work? Mostly. Hughes blends it well in a rambling, confiding narrative that lends itself to the small Hansom Hall venue.
From being a Nazi War Criminals daughter and only girl in a boys’ school, to snogging politician Chris Huhne and a bishop, comedian Charmian tells her true life story of swapped babies, the Iranian embassy siege, and her escape to the circus from the evil world of false limb manufacturer recruitment advertising. Charmian studied clowning under Philippe Gaulier and Theatre de Complicite, but unable to uphold the mime vow of silence, ran away to play stand-up comedy clubs throughout the nation, entertaining everyone from members of the House of Commons to ‘Lifers’ in prison (not to be confused).
