Comedians Of The World - Cal Wilson: Things I’ve Thought, Out Loud | Netflix special reviewed by Steve Bennett
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Comedians Of The World - Cal Wilson: Things I’ve Thought, Out Loud

Note: This review is from 2019

Netflix special reviewed by Steve Bennett

Cal Wilson’s sparky, effervescent delivery only goes so far to cover the paucity of some of her material. She’s even doing gags about autocorrect.

After a preamble about cat cafes (and yes ‘stroking  the pussy’ is duly given its double meaning) and being a Kiwi immigrant to Australia, much of the first ten minutes of her Netflix special is a pretty pedestrian ‘kids say the funniest things’ routine about her son pretending to be a ghost to get what he wants. There are laughs on the soundtrack, but the segment seems as insubstantial as the imaginary phantom.

She frames a lot of the material as a list of anxieties – though confesses that might be a fancy word for just anything she doesn’t like – and seeks to find if her fears are ‘just me or everyone’, from moths to sending a text to the wrong person.

Things step up a gear when this opens out to a #MeToo-style discussion of Uncomfortable Encounters with men, which comes with the ever-germane message: ‘If a woman says something creepy has happened to her, believe her.’

Yes, a lot of female comedians are now talking about this topic, and especially the unwanted dick pic – but that speaks more about the widespread shittiness of male behaviour than anything else. Of course, Wilson has her own shocking tales to tell that highlight the issue what a WTF?-style wit, keeping things breezy even if the underlying point is serious.

Wilson can tell a good story, as exemplified by a couple of anecdotes that left her mortified, and has a vivid way of describing what words sound like, from ‘slut’ to ‘pussy’. OK, so that’s not such a wide range…

But when you’re fighting for attention with 46 other stand-up specials released on the same day, let alone the hundreds more already available on Netflix, Things I’ve Thought, Out Loud does not have the edge to stand out.

•  Comedians Of The World -  Cal Wilson: Things I’ve Thought, Out Loud is out on Netflix now. Watch here

Review date: 3 Jan 2019
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

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