Review by Steve Bennett

It is difficult to explain how something so polished can be so mediocre. This adult puppet show drips with American professionalism and showmanship. The puppetry is fantastic, the original musical score accomplished and performed well, the puppet herself is well crafted and better dressed than most fleshy celebrities but there is something lacking, and I think it’s a heart.

At 62, Madame With An E bills herself as the oldest showgirl in Las Vegas, and hers is not a puppet show for kids, with the old bird cursing like the Joan Rivers wannabe she is. Nor is she shy of some blatant sexual innuendo asking if her ‘fringe is showing’ while adjusting her sequined gown, or assuring the Scottish gentlemen in the front row that she can put a ‘tilt in their kilt’.

Adult puppetry is not new and with acts like Paul Zerdin and Nina Conti on the UK circuit perhaps us Brits don't find this quite as shocking or original as our American cousins. Just because a puppet says ‘fuck’ it doesn’t make it any funnier. Shock humour still needs to have a point to get the laughs.

The script that puppet-master Joe Kovacs reads from is a distraction and undoubtedly the whole show would be more convincing if Kovacs was out of view rather than centre stage with Madame. He admits t he is no ventriloquist and makes no attempt to try it, so I found myself watching him perform more than I did the puppet.

There just doesn’t seem to be any passion in this tightly scripted performance with cheesy dialogue between Madame and her hard-done-by piano player Paul. There are set-ups and punchlines but it all seems too contrived, too polished and too (dare I say it) wooden.

Madame has made a name for herself in her native USA winning two Emmys and boasting several celebrity friends and appearances on Family Guy but in the competitive world of comedy on the Edinburgh Fringe, she is more of a dummy than a diva.

Reviewed by: Corry Shaw

Review date: 1 Jan 2008
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett