Fringe Review: CRUDI DENCH: SOMEONE HELP HER!, Iron Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate
Crudi Dench is one of our favourite Fringe performers. There is such an effortless naturalism to their comedy, they can push a joke completely beyond the point of sanity, say something absolutely outrageous and somehow make it feel like the most natural thing in the world.
We’ve loved watching Crudi perform over the years, particularly alongside Kate Butch in Drag Queens vs Zombies and Drag Queens vs Vampires, so we were delighted to finally see their long-awaited solo Fringe debut. And frankly, if this is what Crudi can do on their own, we want more.
Someone Help Her! is essentially Crudi’s attempt to become the star of their very own light-entertainment television spectacular. The audience are transformed into Crudi’s celebrity friends, while callers phone in with their problems and Crudi, naturally, takes it upon themself to solve them.
There is, however, one small incentive.
Crudi announces that if they successfully help even one person, they will crowd-surf naked. We were suddenly very invested in the success of this television programme.
The audience interaction is a huge part of what makes the show work, with Crudi constantly pulling the room into their fictional world. And they are absolutely fearless when it comes to letting a joke run. Sometimes they will keep pushing for so long that you reach that deliciously uncomfortable point of thinking, surely they're going to stop now? They don't, and that is precisely why it works.
There is a confidence to Crudi's comedy that we absolutely adore. Nothing feels like it's being forced. Even when the material becomes completely outrageous, there is a sense that Crudi is simply following the joke wherever it wants to go.
The whole thing is thoroughly entertaining and, obviously, very funny. But then, towards the end, the show suddenly reveals that the person who has been calling in throughout the programme is actually Crudi themself.
Because underneath the celebrity chaos and increasingly absurd attempts to help everyone else, Someone Help Her! is actually about burnout, self-worth, the pressure to keep performing and what happens when you're so busy trying to be everything for everyone else that you forget to look after yourself.
It's a lovely turn, because Crudi doesn't abandon the comedy to make the point. Instead, the more heartfelt material grows naturally out of everything we've already watched.
And perhaps that's what makes Crudi such a special Fringe performer. They can make an audience laugh at something completely ridiculous one minute and then, almost without warning, give you a little glimpse of something genuinely vulnerable the next.
This show feels like a huge success for Crudi, and we have absolutely no doubt that it will be a welcome delight for plenty of Fringe audiences this year.
Crudi Dench is a cult Fringe favourite of ours now. They aren't simply making good shows; they are part of what makes coming back to the Fringe every year so bloody exciting. There is a real value in performers developing their own language, their own audiences and their own weird little corners of Edinburgh, and Crudi has absolutely found theirs.
So keep doing what you're doing, Crudi. Keep making the jokes go on too long, and keep making us laugh. But make sure you have a holiday from time to time too, the Fringe wouldnt be the same without you.
There ain’t no show like a Crudi show!
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: James Edge
