Showing at Just Out Of The Box at Just The Tonic at The Caves from 20-30 Aug, New York comedian Meka Mo returns to Edinburgh with her new stand-up hour, New York City Dreams. It’s her debut solo stand-up at Edinburgh Fringe.
An American black woman, Meka Mo opens her act with direct aim at the British, with their love of history, tradition, and obsession with Americans. It’s a hilarious outsider perspective on “some serious shit” in the world.
Turning to attraction, dating, and how men deal with a woman coming on to them, New York City Dreams then heads into the culture shock of travelling across the United States.
Meka is clearly at ease with being a black New Yorker, and has a dry style that still feels friendly, Her act may appeal more to other women based on the material in New York City Dreams, but she has put together a set that flows well, has few pauses to breathe, and manages to rope in every positive and negative experience along the way.
She will be just as cutting about the Irish as the “war-torn Whites”, about the Utah whites, the Asian girls, and the white man who is curious to date diversely. But it is never cruel, just observation with a wink to what we have already noticed.
Her childhood as a black American with a Liberian father is amusing fodder, as is her year in college in white West Virginia, home to Confederate flags and “dumb people”.
The set concludes with more generalised observations on toxic masculinity, social media, and how to live out of your comfort zone, It’s a 360 degree twist on not wanting to go to Syracuse earlier in the show. I enjoyed this show and the idea of what is an American, what is a Brit, and what the f*ck is going on in the world.
4 stars.
Meka Mo is at the Edinburgh Fringe from 20-30 Aug.
I reviewed from a recording supplied by Meka’s PR.