Writing a new comedy show must be an incredibly difficult undertaking at the best of times, and this is certainly not the best of times. Many comics take months to write a show, by which time who knows what the landscape will look like? In the past two years this problem is made significantly worse by the constantly changing state of the world but also its completely unignorable effect on our lives. So what to do? Write a show that ignored the pandemic completely and pretend it's 2019? Mention the pandemic and lockdowns in passing as a vehicle to get to other material that defines how we live now? Or write a show during lockdown about isolating with your family and ordering weird shit on the internet, then perform it in March and April as if it were still the world in which we live? Many of this year's shows have chosen the second route, and on reflection it seems like that was probably the best path. But Cal Wilson seems to have gone with option three, much to the show's detriment.
That the show seems tired and dated when six months or a year ago it would have been cutting-edge is a testament to the speed at which we adapt to radically new surroundings and a complete upending of social norms and the pace of everyday life. It's not Wilson's fault that we as an audience have become jaded and bored of jokes about pandemic crafting and Zoom etiquette. But it is unfortunate that she didn't foresee such an eventuality when writing this material because it can often come across as stale.
Wilson's cheerful optimism and relentless good humour push things along, and there are chuckles to be had in her cats' refusal to use their orthopaedic food bowls correctly and her difficulty in following her brother's strict shower hygiene regimen. She is a determinedly inoffensive comedian, delivering gentle jokes with a big smile. She's comfortable on stage, warm and personable, and on the night that we went a few pre-show wines made a large portion of the audience quite receptive. But Cal Wilson is a household name, and with that fame comes an attendant expectation to deliver a show that's not just polished and well-rehearsed but genuinely funny and relevant to the current state of things. There was a time for this material, but unfortunately, that time is probably well past.
