This review is based on watching an online video recording made on 10th August 2024 at Edinburgh Festival Fringe as I am sadly unable to attend in-person as planned this year.
Louise Leigh brings her comedy A-game via some B-roads to her second Fringe hour ‘Louise Leigh Distracted'. Louise is a mid-life-made comic who started comedy in her forties in 2016 and went on to win Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year in 2022.
Fast forward to 2024 and the show has the air of a comic with more miles on the clock than eight years, proving Louise Leigh has been living an inherently funny life with the honed ability to extract nuance from wide-reaching well-observed issues that are both unique and very relatable.
We join wannabe ‘cool mum’ but perennially sensible Louise Leigh as she balances her need to misbehave while obeying societal expectations. ‘Rebel within the rules’ Louise takes audiences on a journey to reconcile facing real life problems with never truly growing up.
Highly perceptive with on-the-nose observations about modern life and a desire to stay on the exciting side of it, Louise takes our minds through a midlife movie that finds its way through how stalking your teenage kids at school is acceptable through to why warm nipples should give way to their cooler cousins. I'm with cold nipple energy and wild swimming all the way (not forgetting the Dry Robe, of course).
She breaks down every conventional stereotype thrown at women in mid-life while still aligning with the real-world shared experiences of women to deftly define and connect one generation with the next. This is a show Gen Z should take their mums (and dads) to – everyone will learn something with big belly laughs along the way.
Louise Leigh Distracted touches upon the old cliche of connecting with your inner child but it rings true – cleverly done so from the perspective that things in life often distract us from our true selves. Louise finds the funny in how to realise that who we are doesn't actually change that much even though our bodies age. Maybe that's what personal growth is.
Louise's approach to tackling midlife's challenges leaves us all with a feeling of hope for the future even if, for her, that means being taxidermied. How else will she stalk her great great grandkids?
Show: Louise Leigh Distracted Venue: Just the Tonic (Cabaret Voltaire) Time: 15:30pm (60 mins) Date: Until 25 August (except 19th and 26th) Ticket price: £10 (£8 concessions) Eligible for 2-4-1 discount and group discounts Ticket link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/louise-leigh-distracted
