Words: Robert Parker-White

Never have I been asked ‘what’s your soup style?’ until Alison Spittle.

Fittingly, Alison opens her stand up set with an in-depth discussion with her audience about favourite soups, soup styles and soup group chat nicknames. It was soup-erb, if a little tepid.

In her yellow flower headband and brightly coloured dress, Alison is relaxed and open as she banters with her audience. She has an ease and flow to the improvised chat that keeps everyone at ease, even when keen, tipsy Irish fans continue to interject her performance with questions like ‘where in Ireland are you from?’ She suggests a chat at the end instead of during the set, which gets a huge laugh from the crowd.

There were times when the links between bits felt clunky, but this is early in the run and will no doubt be ironed out quickly. 

Alison delves into funny anecdotes as she paints a clear picture of her and her six housemates and small balcony, with themes of flowers running throughout. When lacing stories with darker themes of personal trauma and her CPTSD (the C stands for cool, Alison tells us), Alison still manages to keep the tone light and funny. In fact, her sharing of her struggles makes her all the more truthful and relatable.

From online trolls, to weddings, families, worms and lice, watching Alison Spittle’s show Soup will be an enjoyable hour of laughs.

Alison Spittle: Soup
Monkey Barrel Comedy, The Hive
13.25
6-27 Aug (not 14)