RAZOR-SHARP
★★★★★AUDIENCE REVIEWS
"Great show. Intelligent, witty and very funny. We have seen Jo several times over the years and she never fails to impress."
“Absolutely brilliant! By far the funniest show we have seen this year. Never fails to make me laugh.” — John B
“I really enjoyed Jo’s show…..very sharp indeed and clever bringing in the audience. Will definitely seek her gigs out again, and will read her new book, which resonates with me.” — Wendy R
“Jo Caulfield is absolutely hilarious. I’ve seen her twice and she just get’s you in to a state of agreement, then BAM, she makes you feel embarrassed because she could be talking about you. If you don’t see her, you’re missing the best Comedian out there.” — Phil D
“I don’t think I stopped laughing or smiling at all throughout Jo’s entire show. She was fast paced and engaging, with such a sharp whit – we really enjoyed how effectively she handles the crowd, including the odd heckler, without skipping a beat. I’d consider this a must-see show!” — Hilary M
“Jo Caulfield was excellent tonight! Endlessly sharp with consistently relatable jokes and chat. Thoroughly recommended!!” — Angus D
“Terrific show, totally on point, brilliant humour based on keen wit and oh-so-true observations of ‘real life’. Jo kept us all in stitches without any need for the tiresome torrent of profanity that populates so many other shows. If you have not seen Jo Caulfield’s show yet please do yourself a favour and go. A highlight of the fringe!” — Vicki M
RAZOR-SHARP
★★★★★ONE4REVIEW
"Be quick to see a top comedian at her very best."
Not every Fringe show title is accurate. Some are darmed confusing. But this is one that hits the nail on the head.
Jo Caulfield has been gracing the Fringe for a long time and boy does she know how to do it. All the ingredients are there, superb comedy writing, flawless presentation, stage presence by the bucket load and a confidence in what she is delivering each year.
There is no pretence of a message in the hour, it is just a quality comic telling the sold-out crowd about events and characters in the last twelve months.
As usual her husband seems to provide a bottomless source of things for her material, be it magazine articles, Ancestry DNA, role play in relationship, an insight to the different sexes on a night out to name a few. There was also a recent holiday to Malaga, an Irish pub with casual racism and dating profiles and newspaper lonely hearts. All subjects that had the audience in stitches throughout.
Jo is also adept with her crowd work, both in gathering info and also dealing with those who ‘wanted to join in’.
There is also a small section where she reads from her book ‘A Funny Thing About Death’ a story of her life with her recently deceased sister Annie, that is both touching yet funny at the same time. Profits from the sale of this are being donated to MacMillan Cancer Charity.
Ms Caulfield’s shows are always very popular and this is no exception. Be quick to see a top comedian at her very best.
RAZOR-SHARP
★★★★★BOUQUETS & BRICKBATS
"If you’re craving the experience of being absolutely helpless with laughter, this is where you need to come."
As Fringe reviewers, we’re generally on the lookout for new acts. On the other hand, there are some old favourites that we just can’t stop returning to. Jo Caulfield is one such performer. This woman is an enigma, relentlessly old school in her approach, yet with an acidic edge that never feels old fashioned. She has the uncanny ability to nail her chosen target with a few carefully chosen put downs and move on to the next subject.
Razor Sharp is this year’s title and it sums her up very succinctly.
Out she comes and we can see she has a cob on about something and she isn’t holding back. People brave enough to sit in the front row are quickly excoriated, but here’s the thing: they love being demolished! A range of targets are unceremoniously despatched. Old grudges are aired in no uncertain terms. And, most importantly, we are all laughing uncontrollably, pretty much from the word go, at the comprehensive list of irritations she’s made notes on since we last saw her.
In a variation from her norm, she’s recently published a book, but – unlike many comics who go for the ‘how I became funny’ approach or the (inevitable) children’s series – she’s chosen to write about death, more specifically, the untimely demise of her beloved sister. Even more unusual, she’s donating all of the proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support, and she’s already raised thousands of pounds. Yes, copies are available at the shows.
If you’re thinking that it all sounds a bit grim, relax. She reads a brief extract and, while there’s a thread of melancholy woven through the writing, it’s as incisive and bitingly funny as just about everything else she turns her attention to.
So, yes, there will probably be more groundbreaking comedians at the this year’s Fringe. There will be performers who will take you on a journey, who will make you look into your souls and rethink your very existence. But if you’re craving the experience of being absolutely helpless with laughter, this is where you need to come. And to those who quibble about her sharp edges, she has her own glorious riposte.
‘Unlikeable? Me? I’m fuckin’ delightful!’
RAZOR-SHARP
★★★★EDINBURGH-REVIEWS
"Razor-Sharp is a chance to see an award-winning comedian that you should take".
Jo Caulfield’s book ‘The Funny Thing About Death’ was released this week. You can get a signed copy if you go to Razor-Sharp, the comedian’s Edinburgh Fringe act.
I live in Edinburgh, in Leith (according to the council – in Granton, if you ask me), and so does Jo Caufield. Yet, to my error, I’ve never seen Jo perform live.
That’s no longer true. I saw Caulfield last night.
Jo Caulfield’s Razor-Sharp is in The Stand Comedy Club, across the road and down nearly a whole block from the main The Stand.
It was a bit of a chilly bank holiday night as we queued up outside, but the buzz from the line was good. In front of us was a group of friends who had travelled up to Edinburgh just to see Jo. Behind us in the line, there was, I think, a father and daughter, and they had come down from Aberdeen to see Jo. They’d be going back after the gig.
I admit it. I was a bit apprehensive about the booking. When comedians and talents from around the world made their way to Edinburgh in a month, when it’s a logistics concern at Edinburgh Reviews and our sister sites, and when I’d never seen Jo perform before, was making time to see her worth it?
The friendly queue reassured me it was.
What to expect
Razor-Sharp is a show about the things that bother Jo. We’re told that there’s no narrative, no plot point, and just a bunch of things that bothered the Leither this year.
I think that’s largely true, but there are a lot of human truths and relationship insights in here. Men and women bond in very different ways; we communicate differently, too, by and large. I might wonder why that is the case, whether it needs to be, whether it should be the case – but Jo doesn’t go there. Jo just pokes fun at her husband and his friends.
There’s a little bit of audience interaction. Jo needs some couples to talk to as she searches for relationship advice for a friend and the occasional prop in a joke. It’s nothing terrible, though, not unless you’re timid (don’t sit at the front) or fragile (don’t go to a stand-up gig).
The person who takes the most flack, in some ways, is Jo herself. Razor-Sharp doesn’t just describe her tongue but her intelligence too. She’s grumpy, but the show is her hanging a lantern on that, perhaps for introspection but certainly for extrospection. By playing this role, or highlighting it so clearly, Jo lets the audience imagine how they’d react in a similar situation, whether as Jo or as the person dealing with Jo.
My extrospective takeaway is, as ever, to try and be more empathic. As it doesn’t come naturally to me, I should make an effort to step into the shoes of the person I’m talking with and imagine how the conversation might sound to them and what they might be thinking or feeling.
Vibe and performance
I’m pleased to say the good-natured vibe of the queue to Razor-Sharp continued inside. We had some big personalities in the audience, people happily slapping their thighs or standing up to take a wee bow when Jo called them out, and one gent in a bowler hat (yes, really), was happily taking wee nips from a flask.
Jo’s a practised, experienced and talented comedian and that carried the whole night. She was prepared, ready and embraced the crowd. Unsurprisingly, she’s won awards for this, and I’m sure she’ll win them again.
The Stand 3 & 4 isn’t a comedy venue throughout the year. I think it’s a hotel, or long-stay apartments, though, as there was an actual bar in the back corner of the room! That’s especially handy if you fancied a pint as you listened to Jo chat about Leith watering holes.
Thankfully, no one got up mid-performance for a beer and was too drunk for the show.
Overall
At the start of the review, I admitted that I wasn’t sure whether booking in to see Jo was the right idea.
It was.
I’m glad I went, Jo is funny and clever, and the ‘razor-sharp’ here is for her observations, not just her preferred communication method. Recommended. Grab ‘The Funny Thing About Death’ while you’re there, too. It’s an unusually powerful keepsake.
RAZOR-SHARP
★★★★★GO-LIVE BLOG
"Sharp, emotional, very funny and highly recommended"
Poor Stuart! Jo Caulfield’s husband is the butt of a good deal of her storytelling. Whatever he may or may not feel about that, audiences love it. Caulfield delivers her trademark acerbic bitchiness, casting her eyes around on the ridiculous things people do. As well as her hapless hubby she takes aim at her women friends, men more generally, and those sad creatures who write to the Metro freebie in the hope that someone they saw on the bus will respond to them.
There’s also a more personal element to the show. Her sister died of cancer in 2016 and Jo has written a book about her sibling relationship, and dealing with the grief since it came to an untimely end. She gave a short reading from her work, which quickly displayed that her writing retains the sarcasm and sharpness she’s known for in her stage act. And for once this isn’t somebody pushing their work for their own benefit, as proceeds from sales are going to Macmillan Cancer Support. Which sounds like two good reasons to buy it.
There’s also a bit of audience interaction and Caulfield is not one to try and be smart with! The title of the show reflects her own ability to come up with one liners swiftly, and put downs if required.
Sharp, emotional, very funny and highly recommended.
★★★★★The METRO
“Voted ‘Comedian’s Comedian 2020/21’… Jo Caulfield is so consistently good, you almost take her for granted”
HERE COMES TROUBLE
★★★★★EDFRINGE.COM (August 2022)
Brilliant hour of fun from one of the best acts on the circuit today. If you haven’t checked out Jo yet, you really should.. you won’t regret it.
She’s a seasoned comic performer, with a great gift for storytelling. Her material was interesting and not the usual, joke, joke, joke you get with many comics. She is very slick with her delivery and can work the crowd. I liked how she pulled all the disparate stories together at the end. Very well worth a watch.
Show number 55 for me this fringe – and this was the best comedy so far. Laugh Out Loud material.
HERE COMES TROUBLE
★★★★★BRICKBATS & BOUQUETS (August 2022)
The laughs keep coming, thick and fast. She’s an expert; she knows exactly how to make her material fly: when to push the boundaries and when to rein things in.
With over 3000 shows to choose from at the Fringe, we usually try to avoid seeing the same performers every year, but there are a few exceptions. Like moths to bright flames, we keep coming back to see the latest offerings from Richard Herring, Paines Plough, Flabbergast, Chris Dugdale – and, of course, Jo Caulfield.
Comedy is a broad church, and we have catholic tastes. For us, Caulfield falls into the ‘Mary’s Milk Bar ice cream’ category, i.e. an Edinburgh classic promising pure enjoyment. You know what you’re getting and it never disappoints.
She takes a few moments to check out her audience (who’s seen her before, where people have come from) and then cautions us at the top: “What I do is, I talk about myself and about who’s annoyed me since last year. That’s what this is. You won’t learn anything”. Well, good. I like life-lesson comedy, but I don’t want it all the time. Caulfield is an entertainer, and I’m ready to be entertained.
And we’re off. The laughs keep coming, thick and fast. She’s an expert; she knows exactly how to make her material fly: when to push the boundaries and when to rein things in. The topics are wide-ranging – from her mum’s favourite TV programmes to nationalising the railways; from irksome neighbours to European mini-breaks – and all skewered with her trademark caustic wit. Her onstage persona is blisteringly impatient. “Fuck off!” she roars on more than one occasion, irritated by the idiocy – and sometimes mere existence – of other people (and crafters in particular). But there’s always that twinkle, that sly charm, that means she gets away with it.
We were tired when we arrived. Now we’re energised. We leave smiling, and head off to the pub. 4.6 stars
HERE COMES TROUBLE
★★★★★THE RECS (August 2022)
The reaction of the sell-out audience served to reiterate that Caulfield remains one of the UK’s foremost stand-ups. Her humour is highly engaging, whilst not shying away from controversy on occasion.
The last two and a half years have been “unusual” to say the least. Definitely so for comedians, facing both Covid-related lost income and home confinement replacing nationwide touring. Yet as normality returns in the form of this year’s Fringe, comics such as Jo Caulfield are mining a rich vein of pandemic-derived material.
In Here Comes Trouble, Caulfield – recognisable, rather than over-exposed, from appearances on Have I Got News for You, and Live at the Apollo – takes the audience on a coronavirus-infused journey. “There is no narrative arc” she teases. Instead, focus rapidly shifts through a polemic of revelations and annoyances stemming from March 2020 onwards. And there is a lot ripping Caulfield’s knitting (crafters, be forewarned)!
A laugh-out-loud segment on the twin hazards of drinking and shopping at home during lockdown, and the apparent aftermath as restrictions eased, is as reflective as it is funny. The perils of having to endure “popular” TV whilst Caulfield was looking after her elderly mother are also brought into comedic focus. This culminates in a hilarious, somewhat surreal, sequence imagining a more realistic Great British Train Journeys episode involving presenter Michael Portillo on the final Friday night train from Glasgow to Edinburgh.
Personal relationships are also valid targets, frequently involving Caulfield’s (long suffering) husband, Stewart. An encounter, on a post-covid European holiday, with a free porn channel in a hotel bedroom fills her Aberdonian spouse with delight, but not for obvious reasons. Aberdonians, akin to Yorkshire folk, are famed for their thriftiness and the gag initiates an uproarious monologue.
The reaction of the sell-out audience served to reiterate that Caulfield remains one of the UK’s foremost stand-ups. Her humour is highly engaging, whilst not shying away from controversy on occasion. Her significant comedic skill is reinforced in the show’s finale which brilliantly ties together the preceding, seemingly disparate, strands in a single narrative. Here Comes Trouble is akin to spending a joyous evening with a pandemic-neglected friend. Albeit one who constantly critiques nearly everything about you. To your face.
HERE COMES TROUBLE
★★★★★ON THE MIC (August 2022)
For an hour of straight stand up, with a tremendous gag rate, Jo Caulfield's stand up can't be beat.
Jo Caulfield is a very popular comedian. Despite not having her own TV show yet, she’s as recognisable as many that already do. She’s been living in Edinburgh since 2013, and, I learn from the queue outside, is seen somewhat as a local celebrity.
Her set borrows from the best of American stand-up traditions. “Don’t look for any theatrical arc, there’s not a bit at the end full of meaning. None of that shit. I just want to make people laugh.” And she does.
We are treated to an hour of acerbic observations and short stories, with a very high gag rate. Caulfield is a tremendous joke writer. Graham Norton, Ruby Wax, and Ant & Dec are among many of the huge names she has penned for.
The comedian’s stage presence is confident and assured. As well written as her show is, she is more than happy to improvise with the audience.
Caulfield only briefly touches on politics, but when she does, there is absolutely no doubt where she stands.
Her jokes about lockdown are the best I’ve heard, among many, at this year’s Fringe. Her take-down of GB News presenters was hilarious. The story of Jo and her husband staying in a luxury hotel in Paris conjures up images that I’m still laughing at days later.
For an hour of straight stand up, with a tremendous gag rate, Jo Caulfield’s stand up can’t be beat.
STEWART LEE
Ageless and effortless, Jo Caulfield is the act you send Fringe-bewildered visiting relatives to to prove to them that loads of the comedians that aren’t on the TV all the time are much better at the business of stand-up than all the ones they have heard of. Once upon a time, I sent them to John Bishop. I wonder what happened to him? Jo Caulfield is the Stevie Nicks of stand-up. A young Deborah Vance if she was real.
HERE COMES TROUBLE
★★★★★ONE4REVIEW (August 2022)
An immaculate performer, a wonderful writer and a consummate professional, delivers an hour of new material, packed out with gags and stories
Always a popular comedian at the Fringe, and elsewhere obviously, Jo Caulfield delivers her 2022 offering to a packed house with everyone well up for the fare on offer.
She is as always an immaculate performer, a wonderful writer and a consummate professional, delivering her hour of new material, packed out with gags and stories
in her accustomed style, slightly caustic about some, bitingly sarcastic of others, but laugh out loud funny throughout.
Jo talks about her life, lockdown, neighbours, football, crafting, online shopping, Great Train journeys, and a couple of city breaks she took with her husband, who
sometimes does get a pasting for his troubles.
It is always a sign of a great show when the performer is winding up and you wonder where the hour went, I would have guessed we had only been in her company for twenty minutes or so and I was not alone with these thoughts I am certain.
Jo Caulfield is always value for money, and is equally a much sought after ticket. To be certain of seeing the show don’t delay with your purchase as you wouldn’t want to miss out.
HERE COMES TROUBLE
BRITISH COMEDY GUIDE
Jo Caulfield delivers an hour of rock solid, high quality, traditional stand-up to appreciative audiences at The Stand Comedy Club, with occasional flashes of viciousness particularly delighting the room.
HERE COMES TROUBLE
★★★★★FRINGE BISCUIT (August 2022)
Jo Caulfield gives an eloquent voice to your inner misanthrope. Prepare to have every petty impulse, bitchy comeback & off-colour daydream indulged & pushed to the limit. A refreshing, near perfectly-paced set from this pro.
Here Comes Trouble
★★★★★THE HERALD (August 2022)
Jo Caulfield is a seasoned performer who every year, puts on a very polished stand-up show. The laughs continue to come thick and fast. She’s a pro after all – and knows exactly when to push the boundaries and when to keep things in check.
KILLING TIME
★★★★★EDINBURGHFESTIVAL.ORG
You come away thoroughly entertained, smiling and recalling superb put-downs and one-liners. This is surely the perfect Edinburgh Fringe comedy show.
Jo Caulfield walks on to stage, sizes up the audience in moments, and proceeds to question, mock and taunt them.
The venue offers a welcoming bar at the side of the room, and is packed out even this early on in the run – early booking would definitely be prudent to make sure you catch this gem.
What’s clear from the moment she walks on to stage is that she is a genius at her craft – the laughs come fast and repeatedly, and her dry, cutting wit effortlessly encompasses the audience’s dress sense, places of origin, and assumed sexual proclivities into her material.
Jo admits early on that there’s no ‘theme’ to the show – it’s just what she’s observed since last year in Edinburgh. But what she observes are fantastically insightful glimpses into human behaviour, and although there is a caustic, wicked sense of humour at work, constantly critical of both male and female stupidity, there is a genuine human warmth in her view of the world.
A highlight is her reworking of a porn script from a male-centric fantasy to a female story: it’s pure comic gold. She also has a simple and invaluable tip for keeping your husband out of the house for a few hours. Her timing, observation and economy of language are all amazing: it always feels as if her mischievous thoughts are just popping into her head.
You come away thoroughly entertained, smiling and recalling superb put-downs and one-liners. This is surely the perfect Edinburgh Fringe comedy show.
EdinburghFestival.org
5th August 2018
KILLING TIME
★★★★★EDINBURGH LITTLE BLACK BOOK
Killing Time is a must-see! Don’t miss this hour of laugh out loud comedy.
It is easy to understand why Jo Caulfield’s shows attract sell-out audiences each year on the Fringe. “Killing Time” is fresh, current, hilarious and so relatable it hurt!
Through Jo’s razor-sharp observational humour and quick-witted interactions with the audience, you are lead, not just through an array of seemingly unlinked, yet individually giggle-worthy anecdotes, but to a climax you do not see coming!
If you’ve caught any of Leith resident Jo Caulfield’s many TV appearances, on shows such as Mock the Week and Have I Got News for You, you know she is funny. But, after a side-splitting hour in her company, you learn that this comedian is one clever lady.
From Gremlins to flashers, men’s speciality subjects and their lack of forethought in threesome fantasies, via snooty sales girls, phone booths and a two-drink minimum in New York, Jo’s show is a must-see this August!
By the end of the show our sides ached and we realised we had not laughed as hard as we had Killing Time with Jo Caulfield, in quite some time. An easy 5 stars from the fiercely fussy Edinburgh Little Black Book team.
KILLING TIME
★★★★★SGFRINGE
If you appreciate dry wit and sarcasm then you will most definitely appreciate “Killing Time”. If you want to laugh non-stop for an hour, do not miss this show.
Jo Caulfield is a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe and now a local to a neighbourhood in the City so it’s fair to say she knows a thing or two about the comedy festival, this year’s show is called “Killing Time”.
Jo focuses on drawing from her own experiences and anything that irritates her as well as poking fun at the audience, watch out silver fox gentlemen! She engages perfectly with the audience with her warm personality and relatability creating the perfect connection for encouraging interaction.
With an easy to listen to voice, this is a show I could see again and again. With Jo’s quick-witted responses to audience participation, she was always on point and never went off track, she has the expertise to always adapt to her audience.
Brilliantly hilarious and witty, or in the words of my companion “that was Funny as Fuck” we could not stop crying with laughter as Jo shared stories of holidays, hobbies, relationships and people she has met along the way.
The show is entertaining with a relaxed vibe but still had a little element of shock and Jo genuinely looks like she is having a great time along the audience.
The room was filled with laughter with a mix of adults of different ages. If you appreciate dry wit and sarcasm then you will most definitely appreciate “Killing Time”.
If you want to laugh pretty much non-stop for an hour and want a local comedian then do not miss this show.
KILLING TIME
★★★★★ONE4REVIEW
Hilarious results generating howls of laughter throughout her hour.
There can be few comedians who perform at the Fringe annually that maintain a consistent high standards that Ms Caulfield does and the lady has done it again with Killing Time for Fringe 2018.
Mixing the inevitably funny, well observed and immaculately delivered show material with her undoubted skills of crowd work, all with hilarious results generating howls of laughter throughout her hour.
She oozes professionalism from the moment she hits the stage, with crowd work, identifying characters that were later included in things, before moving on to the main set. No messages here, just Jo chatting about her year, her husbands attempt at dying his hair, an anniversary trip to New York, snippy receptionists, airport security queues, Harrods shopping, pre-mobile phone communications, which was a learning curve for the younger viewers. Also changes in long term relationships, and of course the differences between the sexes in respect to titillation, sexual promiscuity and looking after a 6 year old, all are stopping off points during the way, way too short hour.
She uses all the tools of her trade to make the show something for each and every one in her audience, and offers a few of her own thoughts as to how things could be improved… and don’t forget the multitudinous laughs along the way.
KILLING TIME
★★★★★BOUQUETS & BRICKBATS
There’s a real joy to be had in watching someone so confident and assured. And Jo Caulfield can be relied upon to deliver a great show.
I don’t go to see Jo Caulfield in order to be surprised. I’ve been a fan of her comedy for long enough to know what to expect – and I’m looking forward to another helping of her sly sarcasm. I’m not disappointed.
It’s Saturday night and the room is packed; Caulfield’s reputation means an audience is guaranteed, and she well deserves it. She makes it look effortless – her stage persona is all shrugs and don’t-give-a-fuck – but it would be a mistake to underestimate the skill that makes this show. She’s sharp, assessing her audience at the same time as engaging us, pushing boundaries with deceptive innocence.
In Killing Time Caulfield sticks to what she knows. ‘There won’t be a theme or a message to this show,’ she says, ‘If you want that, you’ll need to go elsewhere. This’ll just be me, talking about what I’ve done, what I’ve been thinking…’ And it is, kind of – but it’s so much more as well. It’s observational comedy, sure, but a clear illustration of why that genre persists: in the right hands – in her hands – it’s funny. She’s outraged, regularly, by other people’s behaviour, by their rudeness or their lack of awareness, by their sheer stupidity. She maintains a straight face throughout, a wide-eyed insouciance belying the audacity of some of what she says: she’s the queen of bitchy put-downs but she keeps us on her side. It’s an impressive tight-rope walk.
Okay, so there’s quite a lot of men-do-this-and-women-do-that stuff, but she makes it work – it doesn’t seem hack. The observations are fresh and precisely delivered, and the audience response is proof they hit their mark.
There’s a real joy to be had in watching someone so confident and assured. And Jo Caulfield can be relied upon to deliver a great show.
KILLING TIME
★★★★THE SCOTSMAN
Jo Caulfield is whip-smart, her stories as insightful as they are hilarious.
Edinburgh Fringe 2018: 10 comedy shows you must see! There are 1,408 comedy shows alone being staged at the Edinburgh Festival this year, far too many for one person to try to see. But these are the stand-out performers who had our critics rolling on the floor…
Women are all about emotion. Men only communicate in facts. Well, so says Jo Caulfield, so here are a few facts about the comedian courtesy of Killing Time.
Her latest Fringe show has a title, but no overarching theme, it’s just what’s happened to her in the last year and random observations about life. She gets a lot of comic mileage out of her Aberdonian husband. She really doesn’t think much of men who sport Peaky Blinders caps. She and the husband went to New York to celebrate their anniversary and condescension ensued. She judges you…
… And the packed house at The Stand judged her observations pretty damn funny. Caulfield is whip-smart, her stories as insightful as they are hilarious, her wicked barbs towards others balanced by a tendency to be as honest about her own failings. Of course, every comic is presenting a version of themselves, the one that will get the most laughs, but the on-stage Caulfield always rings true.
With her hair newly piled atop her head, and a casual elegance, she has a look of the great Katharine Hepburn, but while Hepburn could be brilliantly waspish on screen, she didn’t write her own material. Caulfield’s areas of interest this year include the wisdom of inciting foreign folk to drop by if they’re ever in Scotland, the trouble with New Town bars and kiddies who expect to be worshipped. And as ever with Caulfield, there’s plenty of bouncing off the audience, not literally, of course (though that might be fun). Caulfield has few peers in this area. If you’ve never seen Jo Caulfield live, I could list plenty of reasons why you should. Or have I done that already?
KILLING TIME
★★★★BROADWAY BABY
An hour of consistently high standard comedy.
Jo Caulfield strides on stage with all the self-assuredness of the seasoned performer that she is. Wryly observing the audience, she comments that we ‘look holidayish – last night’s audience dressed up more’, and this sets the scene for some gentle audience interaction where Caulfield pointed out some ‘silver foxes’ and ‘peaky wankers’. This is an hour of safe, middle class tomfoolery which will keep you in a state of merriment for the full hour.
Despite asserting at the beginning that there is no deeper message or ‘journey’ contained within her performance, Caulfield does foray into the occasional political observation. An anti tory quip and an introspection on the gendered nature of attitudes to promiscuity demonstrate the hidden depths in her material, exercised with her natural finesse.
Misadventures in Harrods, robbing Air-BnB’s and being flashed on a Greek holiday are all topics explored by Caulfield, who deals well with an audience member disclosing her own experience of indecent exposure at the hands of her best friend’s dad. And toward the end, Caulfield also exercises a feat of genius as she dissects the non-sensical; re-writing her own pornography improv-style, calling back all the previous quips and audience interactions and injecting them seamlessly into the story line.
An hour of consistently high standard comedy, though nothing which breaks barriers or comes across as cutting edge – which, admittedly, isn’t the vibe Caulfield is going for. An easy going hour of middle class conviviality which will keep you amused from start to finish.
KILLING TIME
★★★★EDFESTMAG
If you’re looking for an hour of classic stand-up, Jo Caulfield is the perfect choice.
Jo Caulfield’s new show Killing Time does what it says on the tin. It’s an hour of odd topics and observations covering everything from tales of Australian travellers to hotel baggage handling and one extremely embarrassing trip to Harrods.
It’s a casual show, with Caulfield expertly incorporating stories and opinions from the front few rows, poking some fun and having a great time doing it.
She is also more than happy to poke fun at herself, shamelessly revealing details of her marriage, sex life and narrative porn preferences. Her dry wit and sarcasm are staples of British comedy and she represents a well-known sense of humour.
There’s a few moments that are likely best suited to an older audience, with several jokes focusing on long-term marriage as well as Caulfield’s observations on bewildering modern trends.
It isn’t a show that breaks new ground in the comedy game or deviates from the norm, but it’s entertaining, light and is an enjoyable hour. Not so much a show for families, but definitely for couples or groups out on the town.
If you’re looking for an hour of classic stand-up delivered by an Edinburgh local, Jo Caulfield is the perfect choice.
OLDER. WISER. SMARTER. MEANER
★★★★DAILY BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Totally unmissable show – again.
Go Jo!
A comedy stalwart of the Fringe, Caulfield has been treading the stand-up scene here since 2001 and kept coming back even after that first season when she saw a guy urinating on her pristine fringe poster. Indeed she loves Edinburgh so much she moved here, firstly to twee Morningside and latterly Leith, and Edinburgh was her specialist subject on Celebrity Mastermind last December. Her new show capitalises on her interaction with the audience and finding out where they are from and what their names are, how long the couples have been together – all the stuff that women love to know.
When two disparate groups admit they have come from Aberdeen quick as a flash she says: “I bet you all travelled in one car.” Her routines about the differences between men and women are totally on the money, as are her observations about girls’ nights out and just generally about getting older and hating the party scene. She hates it so much that she patiently waits for a signal from her husband to leave, usually when he has insulted everyone in the room. Brilliant. Caulfield admitted to a little nervousness in trying out this new show. That’s gutsy and shows the trooper in her.
There are great gags about people with allergies and intolerances, and those who need to go to anger management courses, those on diets, how she tried to change her husband so much she even tried to change his name to Julio as it goes better with Jo. A routine about interviewing her husband on their first date is priceless as like many women she has planned out a whole scenario and has a check list – does he have a car, can he drive, does he own a good suit? Can he fill the position? Ha. This show is more raw than last year’s – a few more expletives, a little bit more edgy, more daring, taking more chances with the crowd, and generally going with the flow. Her gags this year also feature stellar improvs of conversations in bars, continental supermarkets – supermarché to you and me – and even exchanges in Tesco in Leith.
Totally unmissable show – again. Go Jo!
