Jamie Lee’s My Friend Katy isn’t a gag fest; instead, it’s a wry memoir of Jamie’s True Crime obsessed investigation of her best friend’s ‘mysterious ‘ death…20 years later.
Accordingly, the show comes with documentary trappings, split into chapters, whilst carefully teasing big reveals to come. Her tale is gilded with voice-recordings of witnesses, photos of official reports, and a visual timeline to keep track of all the evidence.
It creates a high-wire for Lee to walk, on one side a fall into mockumentary, whilst a pit of post-mortem sadness lurks on the other. Fortunately, Lee has nimble feet and a good sense of balance. Self-deprecating yet confident, she first introduces herself before painting a vibrant, loving picture of her lost friend. Recorded chats with her mum, made whilst “housing” nachos, offer a few chuckles, whilst an account of one unforgettable trip to the Texas Six Flags amusement park shows a talent for both pithy lines and immersive storytelling.
Then there’s the overlap between Jamie and Katy’s love lives, namely Will, the would-be drug baron. Jamie certainly doesn’t spare herself in the telling, that’s for sure! Fortunately, she lubricates this cringe-fest, as with most of the show, with a love of puns and free-range lampooning.
“It creates a high-wire for Lee to walk, on one side a fall into mockumentary, whilst a pit of post-mortem sadness lurks on the other. Fortunately, Lee has nimble feet and a good sense of balance.“
Even so, in my opinion, My Friend Katy isn’t Stand-Up at heart. This is something closer to tragicomic true-life storytelling with hints of theatre. Audiences expecting a barrage of zingers or something a little more cynical or black-humoured won’t get it. It’s still a very interesting, highly entertaining hour in the company of a talented comedian.
Indeed, as the minutes fly by, the mystery only deepens, as 2024 Katy goes hunting for survivors whom she can grill for more information and documentary evidence of foul play. She even finds a singular hypnotist in an effort to dig up memories she may have suppressed. Life, as always, proves both stranger and more mundane than fiction.
Along the way, Jamie segways into a bit on her and her husband’s IVF journey, ostensibly as an intro to ‘forensic evidence’, but making merry with differing requirements made of the sexes when producing the component parts. Here, and in other finely phrased bits, you’ll detect the hand of a writer with a world-class feel for sitcom.
As the hour progresses, however, My Friend Katy evolves into something else as Lee acknowledges her investigation as a form of self-therapy, and a means to finally grieve for her lost friend. I think it’ll be quite punishing for her to deliver the final 5-10 minutes until the 25th, but it does bring the show full circle to its opening monologue on the tragicomic absurdity of human lives being transformed into content. That said, her sense of humour doesn’t fail, even at the very end.
In the end, and whilst it may hover between genres, My Friend Katy is an accomplished hour of tragicomic memoir from a fine comedian.
Show details
Venue: Venue 33: Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ (Google Maps)
Date(s): Mon 18 Aug to Mon 25 Aug (8 shows)
Time(s): 4:00pm (60 mins)
Age recommendation: 16+
Price: From £16.5 (concessions available)
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