Mini Review: Issy Suttie
by Laura Woodhouse // 11 March 2009, 22:06
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Issy Suttie perform at Leeds University's Comedy Sessions. For any Peep Show fans out there, she played the frisky, geeky, cheese-loving Dobby who woos Mark in the stationery cupboard. On stage, she's even more adorable.
Her set consisted of weirdly cute songs about childhood crushes, green sweeties and dancing Slovakian princes, letters from her mother detailing the ins and outs of rural life in Matlock, the town with the third worst heroin problem of any small to medium urban conglomeration in the Peak District (apparently), Mr Mississippi's jazz-infused guide to getting a lady into bed, Amy Winehouse stuck in a well and an anti-drugs puppet show featuring the one and only Stoner Snake. What more could you want?
While it wasn't always laugh-out-loud comedy (though I did nearly wee myself when she brought out some google translations of her mother's letters, but then I am a translation geek), Suttie had a wonderfully warm stage presence, a pleasingly expressive face and a beautiful singing voice, and her act was both inventive and engaging.
Thoroughly recommended, though I hope no one else has to sit through a tepid warm-up act who resorts in desperation to that most over-used and unfunny "edgy" piece of material, the rape joke. Sigh.
Image by Diamond Geyser, shared under a Creative Commons License.
Have Your say
To comment, you must be registered with The F-Word, or login using Facebook or Twitter. Not a member? Register
Founder of The F-Word, Catherine Redfern, has co-authored a new book with Kristin Aune. Find out more at the 
Amy Clare // Posted 12 March 2009 at 13:28
Interesting you should post about comedy at Leeds Uni, because only the other day I was reading the LU student paper and they had a double page feature on stand up comedians in Leeds, in which every comedian they profiled was male (seems they agree with Germaine Greer's latest babblings). Clearly they should open their eyes to the excellent female comedians underneath their very noses!
Phillipa // Posted 13 March 2009 at 20:09
AmyClare, what did Greer say then??
Laura Woodhouse // Posted 14 March 2009 at 23:03
Phillipa - you can read Greer's article, and Kate Smurthwaite's take down of it, here:
http://cruellablog.blogspot.com/2009/03/line-by-line-come-on-germaine.html