Caulfield covers Kangaroos and Coat hangers

Posted on 4th November 2023

Diss Station isn’t really in Diss, observed Jo Caulfield, and I suppose if you’ve come all the way from Edinburgh by train, it must feel quite a slog from Gilray Road to the Corn Hall. It was the first of a catalogue of moans to emerge from the febrile brain of one of comedy’s best known misanthropes. We were advised to discard expectations of a narrative arc or subtext – this is just about me, explained Caulfield, and what annoys me. Mostly her husband, it turns out, and she didn’t actually use the word annoy.

What followed was an evening of scattergun observations that ranged from the whimsical to the gasp inducing. Its best left unsaid into which category the coat hanger gag slotted into, but she certainly wasn’t afraid to test the limits of her audience. Speaking of which, some of the funniest moments of the night involved interaction with the front row. Jo’s claws were out for Mark, when he offered his unsolicited admission that he voted for the Conservatives. Kangaroo wrestling, crosswords, cocktail bars, posh kitchens and Harrison Ford all got the Caulfield treatment, much to the amusement of her audience.

At one point in the evening, she took a break from her routine to read an extract from The Funny Thing About Death, a memoir in honour of her recently deceased sister. It made for a sharp gear change, and one she seemed self-conscious about, even though the passage she chose was filled with mordant wit. With all proceeds going to the Macmillan cancer charity, it was clearly important to her, and I thought it a pity we didn’t get to hear more than a tiny fragment. Perhaps she was worried that the mask might slip, revealing the sensitive, empathic author hiding behind the curmudgeonly stand-up.