Spending an hour on Zoom in the company of Miss ‘Angela Bra’ (rhymes with candelabra), the alter ego of Andy Quirk, is a lot of fun.
As a family were present on the Zoom call, Angela may have been a little cleaner than at her 18+ Bonkers Bingo shows, but her songs, games and patter are wholly professional.
With the odd joke inducing groan-infused laughter (a tale of a sapling and oak’s punchline being a particular case in point), the topics in this At Home were wide-ranging.
It is inevitable that any comedy turn these days has to mention Covid, and a song about hand sanitizer got this out of the way quick so we could move on to non-lockdown matters.
Any woman aged forty worth her salt can chat for England about exes, exercise, social media presence, self image, value shopping, takeaways and Zooming, and Angela doesn’t disappoint on any of these topics.
The audience doesn’t get to sit on their laurels, either, as games and dancing are encouraged. It’s a method that works well for a live Zoom just the same as a club stage, and Angela is more of a warm friend down the oub than a spiky drag act.
Based now in the North of England, Quirk has got the sense of the women of the area spot on, and pitches Angela in the yellow sticker shopper (try saying that in a hurry!) and cat-owning part-time teacher pigeonhole perfectly.
At Home With Miss Angela Bra streamed for one night online as part of the Free Festival Fringe at Edinburgh. Her show is currently on tour and popping up in various venues around the UK (11 September, Pride of the Peaks, see here).