When you visit the Fringe you have to immerse yourself in the culture sometimes and recognise the fact that there are a lot of off-the-wall shows, many put together by universities from all over the UK, but some are by individuals who want to create a platform to showcase an idea they may have, and one such show was put on by the larger-than-life character of Joan Cooper Snark, a poet from Liverpool who is not short of confidence!
Mixing poetry with extreme strong language and adult humour, she chose the Fringe to showcase her debut play to an unsuspecting public, and it was interesting to spend some time with her over a period of a few days to find out what it’s like to promote your own show as an unknown, and it’s certainly not easy! You have to go out and get rid of flyers, accost members of the public and cajole them into spending an hour with you.
But when you have a character like Joan then it’s hard to resist her charms and I witnessed many entering her show not knowing what to expect. I was one of them and she certainly gave everything to the cause and was very entertaining. She found her niche audience and it was good to see her show become more popular as the weeks went on. She delivers some very funny poetry, clearly it’s not going to be to everyone’s taste, and she puts everything into her performance. If you like dark humour and dollops of zany slapstick humour then this is the show for you. I am sure she will be back next year having learned a lot about her show and the Fringe itself and I look forward to seeing her come up with a 2.0 version of this or a brand new show. I expected the unexpected and I got it!
