Reviewed by Fiona Talbot-Leigh, Saturday 11th March 2017
She's back! Adelaide audiences are more than happy to welcome back their favourite senior citizen in her new show,
Granny Flaps - Hanging Out. This character has been created by the extremely talented Lori Bell who is a proud South Australian and an Adelaide Comedy favourite; winning the Adelaide Comedy People's Choice award three times, Host of the Year award twice, and the coveted Comedian of the Year, as well as the 2010 Writers Award. She was also listed in the Sydney Morning Herald's Comic Stars of Tomorrow, and in 2010 won the Adelaide Fringe Award for best emerging artist.
This is a laugh a minute show as dear old Granny looks so sweet, as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, that is, up until the time where she opens it and the F bombs begin to flow quite freely.
The audience is drawn in to Granny's stories of her life, her dearest husband Gerald, no longer of this world but whom she still loves quite deeply, her children, now adults, and all that this situation entails. The evening was full of Granny's witty banter, punctuated with songs parodied by her and strummed on her ukulele.
The intimacy of the Producers Garden suited this show, but I have also seen Bell in bigger venues where she can easily command an audience and connect with all there. She is very clever and quick-witted and, although there was a loose script, this show hangs heavily on audience participation and general banter, at which Bell has simply become an expert.
During the highly energised show, there was nothing thrown at her by an audience member that she couldn't handle, and each exchange with an individual was comically milked by Bell in such a masterful way.
Granny hits below the belt and, once laughing along, you think she can go no further but, trust me, in the next moment you would be proved wrong.
The audience just loved this show from start to finish the night that I was there and we were held in the palm of Granny's sweaty little hands. She invited some more than willing participants up on stage to join her at times. A highlight of the show, and believe me there were many, was the mini sex education talk, by which quite a few audience members became very enlightened. Whether they wanted to be, or not, was another story, but it happened anyway.
The evening ended with a sing-along, rapturous applause, and an encore, all in no way prompted by Granny herself. If you want to laugh a lot, be thoroughly entertained, and are not offended by the F word, then this show is for you.
