Amy Lamé is instantly recognisable with her trade mark thick glasses, dark hair tucked in a pony tail and her chubby figure. She looks like Ghost World’s Enid, only all grown up, but the reality is she will always be thought of as, ‘that one from fat fighters off the telly.’
It is clear that career move wasn’t a success, but it is clearer still she doesn’t care as she eagerly devours a huge sandwich before beginning her performance.
Lamé is an accomplished stand up comedian but for her new production she has abandoned her familiar routine and created a production where the joke is firmly on the audience.
In her show she discusses her childhood, which she claims was traumatised by her kidnapping by Mama Cass who forced her and her brother and sisters to perform tribute covers to the Mamma and the Pappas. Of course this is completely impossible but she really has all the audience fooled by drip feeding them little pieces of information and blending the reality of her childhood with fiction.
Using home movie projections and interviews with her family, the show brilliantly has you swinging from scepticism to whole hearted belief. The story itself is so interesting you almost wish it was true.
There are flaws to her show, though. With so many interviews and stories. Lamé very rarely gets the chance to shine, spending most of the time watching the clips with the audience, which is a shame as when let loose she can be very funny indeed.
This is a brilliantly put together production but is not half as funny as it thinks or indeed should be.
3/5
Martin Miller
