Janey Godley brings her Soup Pot Tour to Leeds. “This is such a beautiful theatre,” exclaims Scottish comedian as she walks out on stage at City Varieties. With that she quickly adds “and I just farted backstage”.
The Scot is barely thirty seconds into her show and already the tone has been set. You see, as she’ll happily admit, Godley has no filter. She’s a typical Glaswegian who grew up in the tough times of the 60’s, 70’s and ’80s. Unfazed, the comedian will happily speak her mind and, at the age of fifty-nine, openly admits that she’s going a bit insane. This is before you’ve added into the mix an autistic husband, a daughter who is also a stand-up comic and an equally insane Dachsund called Honey.
Godley laughs at her daughter’s anxiety, makes routines out of her husband’s autism and pokes fun at anyone who dares cross her. Whoever thought it was a good idea to let her out on the road with a mic is part insane / part genius.
Discussing her life to a wide-ranging audience the Scot, on her debut UK tour, doesn’t mince her words. From explaining why it’s ok to scratch herself in public to how her and her daughter, fellow comic Ashley Storrie, fight over routines, there are plenty of times where Godley admits she should keep her thoughts to herself. Her husband and daughter both provide the source material for the majority of her routines with hilarious results.
Causing trouble whenever the situation arises, Godley talks through her love of traveling on public transport and how she greeted Donald Trump to the UK. They’re both routines that would never cross the mind of a sane human being. However, this is a slightly insane Scot we’re talking about so the end results are nothing short of hilarious.
In her plentiful spare time, the comic sits at home with her daughter finding ways to amuse each other. One of those ways, video voice overs, makes up the second 50% of the show. Armed with a wide selection of video clips from various sources, the results range from hysterical to downright bizarre.
Despite the general source of her humour being politicians from Boris Johnson to Nicola Sturgeon, nothing is off-limits. The Royal Family, cats, dogs, even her own Daschund Honey get the voiceover treatment. It adds an interesting twist to live stand-up comedy and while there are a few times when the result doesn’t quite hit the mark, the general ridiculousness of it all makes it a winner.
By the end of the show Godley admits she can’t quite believe that people have come out to see her debut tour of England. However, judging by the fans milling around waiting to meet her afterward, it seems plenty of us share her hilariously gritty outlook on life.
We interviewed Janey a couple of months back and you can read what she had to say here.
There are also a few dates of the tour left you can find dates and tickets here
