gillian english
In September 2018 at the Halifax Fringe Festival I sat in the Bus Stop Theatre on Gottingen Street to attend one of two live tapings of Gillian English’s Live Comedy Album. This, in itself, was a rare and exciting moment. English hails proudly from Pictou County, Nova Scotia and over the last few years Halifax Fringe audiences have seen English quickly propel herself successfully into the international market of touring Fringe shows. Bringing her stand up comedy home to Halifax, and choosing to record her live album, which will be released on Howl & Roar Records on January 21st 2019, at the Bus Stop was both a sweet testament to English’s roots as a performer, as well as a celebration of this impressive new milestone. It’s clear that Halifax audiences and the Halifax Fringe in general are very proud of English’s successes.
Howl & Roar Records is “a female centric comedy record label that facilitates in the creation and distribution of content, in order to empower artists and help different voices and perspectives be heard,” and this could not be a better fit for English, whose work in both her stand up comedy and her solo theatre shows has an unapologetic Feminist bent. What I appreciate most about English, as both a person and a performer, is her ability to use humour to tell the truth. Her honesty is so raw and uninhibited that it highlights how rarely we hear a truth unencumbered by diplomacy, cushions, or beatings around the bush. Rooting herself firmly in Feminism, English always uses this biting honesty to find the comedy in punching up, whether at the Patriarchy, Justin Trudeau, or William Shakespeare, and thus she uses her comedy to empower those listening to her who are women, who belong to any marginalized group, or who are real allies to any of the former.
English also continually subverts expectations. Since the taping of the show in September when the project was referred to simply as “live comedy album recording,” the album has now been named Fart Monster, a reference to a line in the show. In the same way that I find English’s raw honesty highlights how diplomatic mine often is, I also find the way she peppers her storytelling with unabashed and joyful references to bodily functions highlights how, even as a Feminist, I often restrict myself to subjects society considers more “feminine.” Listening to English’s stand up reminds me that this is complete bullshit and that a woman calling her debut comedy album Fart Monster shouldn’t seem so revolutionary. As female writers, and as humans, as actors, improvisers, comedians, and artists of all kinds, I think many of us are continually being reminded, or reminding ourselves, that there are entire realms beyond the boxes society has placed on us that we are welcome to explore if we are brave. Gillian English’s Fart Monster takes us into some of these realms, and hopefully she will keep inspiring others to walk through the walls of those boxes, to push through the boundaries, and critically question any resistance one has, or one encounters, to a woman being as frank as men have had the privilege of being for millennia.
I didn’t have the chance to write the review of English’s Live Comedy Album Show during Fringe, when I give out star ratings, so I’m posting the stars I had planned to give her in September now.
Fart Monster will be released on January 21st, 2019 on Howl & Roar Records and it will be available on iTunes and all streaming services.
You can find Gillian English on Social Media: Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@gillenglish).
