I've always felt that there was something music hall about Suzi Ruffell. Chaplinesque even. So it made a lot of sense to me that she chose original music hall venue Wilton's to film her latest show The Juggle. She was even dressed a little vaudevillian, in baggy high-waisted trousers, white shirt and tie. As she pointed out, the likes of superstar Vesta Tilly often used to dress as men onstage. Though I'm not sure if Edwardian entertainers had mullets.

 

Ruffell's show is the latest bulletin about her eventful life. She has now reached the age of forty. Not old, but not young any more, a kind of limbo that is fertile ground for material. There's something of a running theme of the noisy cultural clash between old and young - when she meets a teen who is into vintage music she thinks they mean Motown. But life has moved on. They actually mean Little Mix.

 

The Juggle is a show about coming to terms with who you are. Ruffell is a mother and is trying to make the most of the fact that her young daughter still thinks she is a hero. She slightly dreads the teenage years when she has heard that sweet little girls turn into devils incarnate. She has already seen embryonic hints of it in the shower at the pool when her daughter made unintentionally mean comments about her body.

 

This is a high energy show frontloaded with laugh-your-socks-off gags. Some are punchline-based bangers, others are neat little asides which get the audience roaring. Diverse subjects range from cat death to botox to spider fear and there is even a site-specific ghost story.

 

She is also a wonderfully physical performer – again, reminiscent of a silent movie star – darting around the stage, throwing shapes while talking through her Britney Spears head mic. When she messaged someone to tell them about it, writing "Britney Bitch", predictive text sent it as "Britney Butch."

 

There is plenty of self-mocking relatable material here that will have you nodding in agreement as Ruffell runs through the things that give her the ick. “If you don't have anxiety, you're not concentrating”, she sagely observes at one point. There are also observations about life as a stand-up comedian, the mistakes one makes along the way, from embarrassing self-promo clips to motorway wrong turns.

 

There are no wrong turns in this show though, which is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. There's a sincere message towards the end about being gay today, but the politics is never heavy and there is also a sparkling showbiz finish. No juggling in The Juggle but a real star turn from this latterday clown.

 

 

*****