She may be dead to her brother and consider herself “not a nationalist”, but former Scottish National Party MP Mhairi Black is a force to be reckoned with in her debut Edinburgh Fringe show, blowing audiences away with candour, humour and downright pure, unfiltered honesty about her former job in the mother of all Parliaments. The person who holds the record for the most swearing in the Parliamentary chamber may be “used to people leaving the room when [she’s] talking…and that’s just SNP group meetings”, but her show Politics Isn’t For Me leaves no stone unturned, doorkeepers’ Saville Row suits and Boots’ two for a tenner tights included.
Determined not to meddle with those who seek to discredit her and “the alphabet soup” of identity politics, the self-confessed LGBTQ-EX-SNP-MP-ADHD considers her show a “trigger warning for bigots”, creating one of the safest spaces in the entirety of the Fringe to revel and laugh in her honesty of the trials and tribulations afforded to her by her former employer. From a cybersecurity incident against her Wikipedia led by her own brother, baby pictures with more booze than family Christmas and a range of images of ‘her’ dancing in the Swiss Alps or sitting with King Charles with a remarkable similarity to Maria from The Sound of Music and Princess Diana, Black gives a sensational performance filled to the packed auditorium’s rafters with honesty, integrity and simple hilarity that’s sure to brighten any political pessimist’s day.
Packed with easter eggs from many of your (less than) favourite politicians, anecdotes and a heavy dose of introspection, Black introduces us to her childhood, life, election, and Westminster workings all at once, taking the audience with her in this autobiographical journey as well as teaching us a few things we may not have known, such as the phrase ‘toe the line’ originated from parliamentary procedure. She also dives headfirst into the surprising monopoly of scandals and negative headlines she found herself at the centre of, not shying away from the “occasion where [she] may have suggested the minister was talking shite” and her apparent brush with cocaine which turned out to be a melted KitKat. She may not have helped her case by sniffing profusely after mentioning Michael Gove giving her “a couple of lines” for a speech she was writing, but I digress.
Black may be on the way out from politics with thinner skin than she initially thought she had, but her determination to put on a beautifully heartfelt yet intensely hilarious performance makes me hope she considers a career in stand-up. Her stage presence, candour and ability to hold an audience on every word, accompanied by only a chair and a slide show is one of the more remarkable comedic works I have seen and one which begs the question of when, not if, she’ll move into the stand-up world. Whether it’s a sultry Nadine Dorries, manspreading Ian Paisley, pouting Stephen Flynn or a painted portrait of 15-year-old Jacob Rees-Mogg hanging in the walls of Eton, politics may not be for Mhairi Black, but she definitely makes it for all who see her perform.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Mhairi Black – Politics Isn’t For Me is playing at Gilded Balloon at the Museum until August 25th
