Fringe Review: OLIVIA RAINE ATWOOD: OOPS, Billiard Room at Gilded Balloon Teviot
Olivia Raine Atwood radiates energy. She leaps onto the stage grinning and you can’t help but fall for her fizzy American charm. Atwood’s show Oops is the perfect fit for the mid-afternoon slot (2:30pm, Gilded Balloon) where she is cheerful, self-deprecating, and slightly manic in her hour of stand-up comedy.
Oops centres around matchmaking and Atwood’s invariable success to matchmake others but not herself. Through genuine diary excerpts, flipcharts and an abundance of pep, Atwood recalls her well-documented teenage years at the very bottom, if in fact, just below, the social pyramid. She is heartwarming and earnest in her comedy as she tells of past relationships, high-school politics and the formative teenage years.
Atwood’s performance is cute and quirky, she is the girl next door as she darts around the stage and sprawls herself over the chairs of her set after she has scrawled across a flipchart. She doesn’t stop for one single second and her ability to throw herself into a sketch is quite something. Where there is a general gist to her show, tangents stretch the narrative, creating a mismatch of ideas and an effort from the audience to piece together the threads of what is happening.
A dynamic performer, Atwood bubbles with energy as her jokes eke out laughter from the audience. Her comedy relies on humour in hyperbole, with parts of her exaggeration falling a little flat even when reiterated later in the show. Animated, if slightly frenetic, the sheer pace of some of Atwood’s routine is dizzying and perhaps a bit too much.
Confident and likeable, Atwood’s Oops keeps hold of the audience through a meandering tale of almost all of her entire life. It is quite the feat, even if it feels a little rushed in parts. Nevertheless, Atwood’s glow onstage never lets up, as she pounces around with incredible force to an audience laughing along to her mishaps and mismatches.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Hannah Goldswain