Brighton Fringe comedy review

Katherine Ryan isn’t the only comedian with a stylish dress sense and an uncompromisingly frank approach to have come out of Canada. But while Katie-Rose Petley may be cut from the same cloth, her gags are not yet sharp enough to place her in the same league.

She takes to her modest Brighton stage in a vintage 1950s-style cocktail mini-dress, speaking in a slightly baby-doll voice suggesting an innocence that a show called Dirty Bitch is never going to deliver.

This is indeed, an hour built on unapologetic candour, largely on the subject of sex – but also other topics rarely brought into polite conversation, such as  her psoriasis.

Because of her Christian upbringing Petley was virginal for years into young adulthood – at least technically, as she describes herself as an ‘everything but…’ girl for all the loopholes she exploited.

Petley’s settled down now, but calls her sister a ‘slut’ – in a sex-positive way, of course – and has to grapple with the challenge of bringing up a young daughter to be sexually savvy but not active. She discusses trying to answer her child’s uncomfortable questions on topics such as ‘fingerblasting’ honestly – although given her candour on stage, you suspect embarrassment will not be an issue.

Paradoxically, however, she needs sex to have some taboo value for her comedy to work. Transgression rather than wit is why she theorises about why ginger men are well-hung, for example. If jokes about big dicks are your thing, you’ll not be left wanting in this show, but it often feels cheap and all-pervasive. Even when talking about dogs, she can’t help but call them the ‘fuckboys of the animal world’.

While the material is often one-note, Petley’s persona is more intriguing. She emphasises her weirdness, coming across as slightly unhinged as she takes psychopathic delight in the bugs perishing in her zapper, for example. And there’s a winning intolerance for the vanilla that comes through.

The routines can feel a little too much like written monologues often with overblown writing that leaves people behind. And with self-confessed theatre-kid vibes, she doesn’t always permeate the fourth wall enough to make a strong audience connection  Though perhaps the small crowd contributed to that – she was chatty enough as we all waited for the show to start.

Review date: 23 May 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Brighton A&O Hostel Bar