Review by Steve Bennett

Review

'I'm not a gay man,' Shelley Cooper explains. 'Shame. Because it would have saved me thirty grand.'

Shelley has the cracking unique selling proposition that she is a transsexual , and one who has two daughters and a good entrepreneurial mind. That is both good news and bad. It gives her the basis for near-unique comic material, but means she has difficulty in extracting herself from so strong a central subject area.

She is trying, though. This show ends with a section that has little to do with transgender, and a middle section which involves a chat with another Fringe act - on the night I saw it, camp entertainer Jason Wood spoke, unexpectedly, about being sexually abused as a child.

The show's format proves unwieldy with the sit-down guest appearance sandwiched between Shelley's two stand-up routines ­ the first transgender section and the final more general section ­ interrupting the flow.

Shelly has still to find her own post-transsexual voice but, when she does, she will prove to be an even more special comic.

John Fleming

Review date: 1 Jan 2006
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett