I was delighted to see Kate Butch on the Fringe programme. Having enjoyed her on RuPaul’s Drag Race, I already knew she was funny – but there is a difference between being labelled a ‘comedy queen’ and genuinely having funny bones. Kate Butch has them.
From the moment she arrives on stage, the laughs come quickly. Her crowd work is sharp, her timing effortless, and she seems completely at home in front of a live audience.
The show finds Kate on a mission to become a better person, with proverbs providing an unlikely framework for her attempts at self-improvement. She takes those familiar nuggets of supposed wisdom and gleefully bends them around some of the shadier and pettier moments of her own life. It is a simple but effective device, giving structure to an hour that skips merrily between stories, observations, crowd work and glorious nonsense.
The section that stayed with me most, however, concerned the abuse she receives online simply for being a drag performer. Rather than allowing those messages to intimidate her, she turns them into material. Some are genuinely ugly, but Kate’s response is gloriously petty, quick-witted and very funny.
Beneath the laughter is a serious point about the hostility still directed at drag performers whose principal intention is to entertain, create joy and make people laugh. She also looked stunning!
I came out feeling as though I had laughed almost continuously for an hour. For a comedy show, that is about as good a recommendation as I can give.
Kate Butch: A Kate in the Hand is Worth Two in the Butch, 20:00,Pleasance Dome – King Dome, until 30 August
Kate Butch: A Kate in the Hand is Worth Two in the Butch | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
