Review: Abby Wambaugh, The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows

Picture of Tash Snaith

Tash Snaith

Abby Wambaugh brings their debut hour to Soho Theatre this month, covering motherhood, dealing with miscarriage, and other, serious things, such as personifying an orange… Read on to hear what Funny Women thought of the show.

US comic Abby Wambaugh’s debut hour is playful, heartwarming and downright fun. Wambaugh’s mix of stand up and character comedy – from playing inanimate objects, games with the audience (basketball, charades and parkour – is that a game?), to traditional stories – is wonderfully unique.

The show’s premise gives it the variety and energy of a sketch show, with Wambaugh flitting every 3 minutes between characters and stand up. In one instance, you’re following a carefully crafted story from Abby’s past, the next, you’re watching them play ‘old man attempting parkour’, complete with Einstein wig. But that’s not to say that it’s sketch; while there’s variety in the style and characters you meet, Wambaugh’s unwavering affable character shines through in each, connecting them into a complete show. Loosely, the theme of miscarriage also connects some scenes, but Wambaugh playfully addresses this looseness.

A particular highlight of the show for me was the story of Abby discovering they were pregnant. Delivered almost in character – that of a straight-faced stylised version of themself, reminiscent of a musical theatre detective – they masterfully play with the boundaries of what’s serious and what isn’t; delivering lines about farts and throwing up on the coach from New York to Pensylvania like a news reader, Wambaugh thrives in this style. The pay off of the Justin Beiber toothbrush (… you have to see it) had the room in bits.

Themes of gender and sexuality are also lightly explored, in the form of two oranges in a fruit bowl describing non-binary gender with the analogy of brunch. Wambaugh masterfully pokes fun at the need to use silly inanimate objects to discuss gender, because of the reality of people’s discomfort at this topic. Having said this, the themes of miscarriage and gender are only lightly touched upon, with many scenes there purely for comedy’s sake – the number 9 as a 1930s hollywood starlet, the yeast infection game and scare the banana to name a few, are purely Wambaugh having fun doing what she does best; making us laugh.

Wambaugh’s fantastic debut hour leaves me excited for her next one.

Abby Wambaugh is performing The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows at Soho Theatre until 18th January, and you can grab a ticket here.

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