She may not be entirely happy with her show title’s shelf life two years since she first named it Transience, or the amount of reading she got done, but Chloe Petts is the “man she always wanted to be”.
The audience filing in to Vindaloo playing on repeat, with at least three separate groups of men singing along and fist-pumping, sets the scene perfectly for a show that lives in Chloe’s laddishness.
Nothing about Transience feels like a first show, possibly because of how long we’ve all been waiting for it (pre-pando). It’s accomplished both in writing and delivery, not to mention Chloe’s ability to discuss a series of Hot Topics in a way that doesn’t feel anything like rattling through talking points. She even manages to provide us with a useful phrase to help with the manufactured culture war discourse about toilet usage (“Oh, Joanne, it’s all just poo and wee”).
Chloe is a lesbian who often gets misgendered. There’s a heartwarming moment when she recounts her mum’s response to “baby’s first misgendering” as a child, placed next to an excruciating interaction with a woman in the newsagent, both of which show how ridiculous the whole gender binary thing is. The truth of this unfolds naturally through a series of stories, the most entertaining playing out on the football pitch (field? I don’t know football).
She’s a massive, MASSIVE football fan, a fact men often refuse to get fully on board with, but which is unequivocally justified in a story about her interactions with the three men who sit beside her at Selhurst Park for Crystal Palace matches (games? Again, I don’t know football…) No spoilers, but the way in which she is eventually embraced by her fellow supporters is really lovely stuff.
There’s so much fun in the little phrases and names she gives to things: “child geezer” aka her dream kid; becoming “gammon incarnate” with rage; and describing a bloke as looking like “someone’s done a collage at the butchers”. It’s a delight from start to finish, with the sort of laughs that propel you off the back of your seat.
A magnificent first show for Chloe Petts, who is already a premiership comedian.
★★★★
Chloe Petts: Transience is at the Pleasance Courtyard, Upstairs at 18:00, for tickets click here!
