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The Stand Comedy Club 2008, Edinburgh

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Starting her career under the stage name Harpie, Susan Murray was a finalist in the Daily Telegraph Open Mic in 1997 and won the first Jongleurs new act competition the following year.

She first went to Edinburgh in 2000 as part of the Big Value Comedy Show, and returned in 2004 in a two-hander with fellow Brummie comic Karen Bayley. Outside Edinburgh, she has also performed her own solo show, Eternal Optimist, about her search for a partner.

Her writing credits include ITV1's Sketch Show and Radio 4 sketch show In Crowd.

Susan Murray: The Glottal Stops Here
Live Review

Susan Murray took something of a sabbatical in the last year, having tired, as she says, of playing to drunken stags and hens. This is her attempt to cater for a different market.

A fine aim, butone she can’t help but immediately undermine by mentioning that she’s good at blowjobs and a common gag about predictive text calling someone a ‘complete aunt’. You can take a girl out of Highlight, but…

And for all the mentions of glottal stops and the great vowel shift, at its heart Murray’s Fringe debut is a glorified version of the affectionate regional teasing that you’ll see in clubs everywhere, but using local accents as the jumping-off point.

She starts with her own Black Country brogue. ‘You don't hear this accent on TV much,’ she complains, conveniently overlooking £6million ITV signing Adrian Chiles (though he makes an appearance later in the show) or even comedy’s own Frank Skinner. But research has shown that people consider anyone with a Brummie twang to be stupid, so she can get the self-deprecation out of the way first.

Thus begins a spin around the accents of Britain: the aggressive Glasgwegian, soft West Country and distinctive Geordie in particular. We get a brief lesson in how the dialects formed, then invited to do them, making her some sort of reverse Henry Higgins.

There’s not a huge amount of depth to anything – Russell Kane has more insight on social linguistics in a five-minute routine in his show than Murray has in an hour – but Murray has an enthusiastic energy and works the small room with great skill. With a rough charm that’s easy to warm to, she’s playful with her subjects and reads the room like a pro.

She’s prone to taking a few easy jokes: mocking street patios of the youth, imagining how shit CSI Birmingham would be or rephrasing an old Essex girl joke to reference an iPhone instead of a computer. But then there are some much sharper lines in here, too.

The finished show might not be bostin, but it’s an assured step away from the club set she has tired of, but making fine use of the audience skills that experience has taught her.

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An excellent act. have seen her three or four times and she was good every time, with the last time I saw her (At the Stand??), she ripped it.

Incubus2011, December 2011

Saw her at Hereford. I am not surprised that female comedians get such stick, she was crap beyond belief. And the reason that she isn't on telly...she has no talent. She could try auditioning for X Factor.

June Maguire, December 2010

We saw Susan at Wolverhampton last week doing her "Glottal stops here" show, and we had a great night, she did almost two hours witn a small break and entertained us throughout. We had a tour of Britain with a mixture of accents and anecdotes, very good, very funny, we will definitely see her again.

Marj, November 2010

We saw Susan Murray at Hereford on Bonfire night and she was absolutely brilliant. She was the compere and had to ad lib from start to finish and she soon had the audience on side and eating out of the palm of her hand. As usual several groups on the tables with different characters and after a few minutes she had them knitted together like a jumper, they loved her. The table next to us agreed that she was the best we had seen in a long time.

John, November 2010

I saw Susan Murray at the Edinburgh Festival and thought she was brilliant. She was intelligent, innovative and very, very funny. Her show was a rare and nwonderful thing ! Why isn't she on television ?

Chris Fullwood, September 2010

My wife and I went to see Susan at The Stand in Edinburgh performing her "The Glottal Stops Here" show. We both thoroughly enjoyed the show as it was funny and at the same time educating. The show explores accents around Britain and where they came from. If you are in Edinburgh over the next few days pop along to the Stand and you won't be disappointed.

Russell Burcham, August 2010

Saw Susan recently at The Walnut Tree Maidstone. I was puzzled, scratched my head for 25 mins totally straightfaced, questioned other bystanders as to whether they thought it was comedy (and none did) then left. Claimed she was trying her fringe material out! Please save your money Susan, go on holiday or something. This was not comedy.

Graham Fearon, August 2010

Saw Susan last night in Lancaster, she was first act on and the start was a bit slow, but the act got better as it went on.

Terry, March 2010

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