Michel de Soarte: The Afters review – Burning gags from a comedian who says what you see | comedy

MModel, actress, journalist and comedian: there is no doubt that Michele de Soarte is a jack of all trades, but is she a master of the craft? On the evidence of her funny and delicious tour itinerary, that’s yes. The group may not be treading new ground for comedy — far from it — nor is it cohesive around any particular theme. But The Afters features a confident, fantastically arrogant stand-up vocal, as the South London native goes hot and reckless in the face of menopause, parenting and her unconventional upbringing.

You’ll feel like you’re in good hands from the start when De Swarte turns what you assume is some funky, fawning crowd of locals into a fascinating work about cultural appropriation and Norfolk sailors. She follows up with a number about a ‘poor people’ contest with a Bradford native, whose touch of salty truth adds up to something far funnier than the usual comedy of class clichés. Then comes our hostess’s menopausal material, which is distinguished from similar proceedings by the forceful posture of denial with which De Soarte strikes that such a fate could ever befall her.

Piety has begun! De Swarte has no time for them in The Afters – but he also has no interest in shooting positions from the hip. Her manner of saying what she sees is apparently not affected at all, as she arches her eyebrows at this or that aspect of the novelty – the app her niece uses to track her menstrual cycle; A man claims that his girlfriend “makes him feel safe.” And if you need context for this desensitization, learn about De Swarte’s predecessors: poor, eccentric, and ruthlessly unsentimental, they fill the later stages of the show with rough comedic effect and make her character entirely interpretable.

One might wish for more from the show’s startling final section, in which De Soarte recalls the attitudes she grew up with toward teenage girls who dated older men and details her encounters with Jeffrey Epstein and P Diddy. Maybe there’s a whole show – or a book? – On that in the future. The Afters is sure to whet the appetite for more of these more colorful comedic voices.