Wicked Wenches

Female stand-ups commonly fall prey to two great received wisdoms: the first is that they are naturally less funny than their male counterparts; the second is that all men subscribe to this line of thought. Neither is true, and yet both clichés continue to pervade the comedic debate. Enter Wicked Wenches, The Stand’s monthly all-female night, apparently intended as a sharp rebuke to both fallacies.

Resident host Susan Calman is on impressive form tonight, taking the stage with a confident swagger and leaning languidly on the mic-stand as she surveys the slightly sparse audience. The diminutive former solicitor’s broad Glaswegian accent and amiable manner as she potters around the stage make her a particularly disarming compère. Iszi Lawrence possesses much the same air of breathless enthusiasm, but the well-spoken Oxford resident defines herself too heavily as a posh-girl - the gags about being middle-class and shopping at Waitrose feel lazy - and suffers badly from a tendency to rush her punchlines.

Kim Macaskill’s eyes-down stance and slightly faltering speech suggest nerves but belie a hilariously dark sense of humour. Macaskill’s technique is unorthodox, but the Kilmarnock native’s pseudo-shyness proves remarkably engaging. Viv Gee’s beautifully barbed soliloquies on early middle-age, meanwhile, are damaged by her tendency to break the fourth wall and point out the details she burnishes for comic effect; initially a wittily self-referential comic device, repeated usage makes it feel more like self-sabotage.

No such flies on headliner Bernadette Pauley, however. The latest in a summer of American imports to Edinburgh, Pauley’s flawless confidence and no-bullshit attitude make her a sharp, polished performer. Her ability to flit from charming anecdote to viciously biting punchline at a moment’s notice makes her a fascinatingly unpredictable comedian; an animated, emotive spectacle with an innate sense of where the laughs are.