Review: Jo Coffey

Originally from Birmingham, Jo Coffey brought her solo show ‘Curiously Caffeinated’ to Manchester’s The Castle Hotel for the Women in Comedy Festival. Being the circuit’s fourth smallest comic, Coffey has performed all over the country, having reached the final of the Funny’s Funny national competition in 2014. As well as this, Coffey, a 2014 NATYS finalist, presented an aspect of Big Brother’s Little Brother, or as she put it, “was wedged in a dark box with a heavily pregnant Emma Willis where she’d be asked what was going on on the internet.” To which she had no idea.

Rather than hosting the solo show by herself, Coffey opted to bring out four feet something guests onto the stage, granting the audience the oddest interpretation of a Royal Variety show we have ever seen. Special guests ranged from a balaclava clad terrorist with a vendetta against all Terrys to a Croatian Amy Winehouse tribute act complete with ‘Amy Winehund’. The array of characters made for a nice way for the material to be segmented; however, the complete random nature of the characters chosen made for a patched performance overall.

Her astrologist character fell a little flat with spectators, but characters such as her running gag with her Amy Winehouse tribute act and the imperative material on her playground nicknames at school, made up for it.