On her debut tour titled ‘Living My Best Life’ award-winning comedian Laura Smyth arrives at The Leadmill tonight for a highly anticipated evening with a mission of filling a room with joy and leaving punters in hysterics.
As I enter tonight’s venue, there is a sea of spectators sitting ready to be roasted and eagerly awaiting to hear trials and tribulations from these performers’ lives. The atmosphere feels one of sheer excitement as friends and lovers natter away before the show kicks off.
The room darkens and the spotlight shines on the stage with Laura’s voice booming out from behind the stage introducing tonight’s support act Joey Page.
From the get-go, Joey is sending the crowd laughter mocking himself and his appearance before he quickly turns to the audience who are more than happy to be ridiculed and lap up every bit of his quick wit.
From dating, all-inclusive holidays, buffet culture, airport banter and The One Show, Joey jests about a whole host of topics which all can resonate with making his comedy so accessible to all, and it shows as the crowd are in fits of laughter.
As Joey leaves the stage, we have a short interlude where everyone runs for a refreshments and the venue fills out even more for tonight’s main act.
Finally, it’s time she arrives – Laura Smyth enters the stage and hits a home-run seconds in as she picks up where Joey left off going straight for the crowd. She exuberates confidence and professionalism with her immediate crowd rapport.
She talks about Klarna, BMI’s and the reality of TV, before moving on to being a mother when your child is heading on their first holiday away from the family.
Like Joey’s material, it’s relatable, even if some of these things you haven’t experienced, you just get what she’s saying which is demonstrated as the crowd has barely had time to recover before she hits the next joke. Zinger after zinger.
More relatable material soon comes as she discusses social media, a topic which is always controversial when put into the public domain but she never falters or offends just perfectly executes each joke while the crowd are left gasping for air in hysterics.
Laura also touches on some physical comedy, an area of comedy that I haven’t always loved but she just smashes it every time.
A show which makes the audience laugh is surely a successful comedy show, you’d think, right? But she hits a home-run when she introduces this element of honestly and humanity in her material while discussing the menopause, diets, and as she finishes the show she talks about how she beat breast cancer which is part of what made her embark on this tour.
As the show comes to a close, Laura says something which myself and many others might have needed to hear tonight, and that is “light and humour even in dark places”.
‘Incredible’ is the most accurate word to summarise Laura Smyth, and I will make it my mission to see her shine on stage again.
