Tiffany Stevenson in Dictators. Image courtesy of the EdFringe Media Office
The Stand Comedy Club, 4 – 29 August 2010
Reviewed for The List (issue 664)
A quick glance at the leaderboard Tiffany Stevenson uses to rank and display her top five dictators reveals all you need to know about this comic and her style.
First, that she scores power-crazed and often genocidal individuals like they were Top Trumps (stats include ‘Nicknames’ and ‘Death Count’). Second, that she rates her own mother in the top five. Third, that she thoughtfully accessorises the board with a picture of her cat Bumbles sitting in a box looking adorable, as a comforting visual lifebuoy for anyone that feels she’s stepped off the deep end.
That whimsical touch sees Stevenson safely through some pretty toe-curling subject matter. Robert Mugabe executes homosexual people: that’s a harrowing thought. How to deal with him? Book him into Pineapple Dance Studios. Poetic justice. Bashing Mugabe, Hitler and Gaddafi is not exactly a controversial position; the real strength of Dictators lies with the two less conventional entrants in Stevenson’s top five. The worst kind, after all, is the one dictating specifically to you.
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