Rising star Mary O’Connell brings her critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe debut hour ‘Money Princess’ to the Soho Theatre for 4 nights from Wednesday 27th – Saturday 30th March. Her show, directed by Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and Gaulier- trained clown Elf Lyons, sold out its entire run at the Fringe.
She was the 2023 winner of the OF TV (Only Fans) Comedy Creative Fund - the world’s biggest prize fund in comedy. After competing in the comedy challenge show she made it to the final 6, and after a fierce battle with the other comedians she was picked as the winner by judges Jamali Maddix, Mae Martin and London Hughes.
Mary O'Connell is conflicted: she hates capitalism, but she loves to shop. She has always had money anxiety, and, rather annoyingly, winning the world’s biggest prize fund in comedy hasn’t helped that. Mary breaks down her tricky relationship with money, why she feels like she can’t be a risk taker, her love for Sainsburys, and her obsession with scams and financial crime in one entertaining, silly, heartfelt show. She loves to look at the absurdity of things we’ve taken for granted, like how much sending PDFs is a feature of all of our jobs, and what goes through the mind of someone on an electric scooter. Mary tackles concepts like Capitalism, marriage, appearance, mental health, and relationships with a playful, yet acerbic tone that has people in stitches.
O’Connell is fascinated with the way that ‘Girl Boss Feminism’ has equated to female consumerism, and as an avid female consumer, she’s conflicted. She loves buying things and having the money to do so but understands Capitalism as a system doesn’t work, but she can’t escape wanting nice things like scented candles and flasks with slogans on them. Mary digs into why being a Girl Boss is problematic, but it doesn’t make the clothes any less cute. As a money anxiety riddled female comedian, Mary has a high tolerance for suffering and tells us about the fact that she doesn’t value joy, a revelation she had whilst being on Mushrooms under a waterfall in Ghana.
Mary also talks about her love of clowning and alternative comedy and how her experience of the comedy industry as a queer woman of colour has shaped her view of it. Although Mary has big (and not always correct) opinions on big topics, her main priority is her audience enjoying the show and maybe taking a finance tip or two on after they leave. She delivers a blunt and disturbed perspective of observational annoyance and mischief in her debut hour.
Mary O’Connell is a comedian and writer performer. After having been awarded the Creator Residency at Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow Productions, where she developed some of her creative projects, Mary was then offered a role to work there full time as a development producer. She is a massive TV nerd and has a Masters in Film Studies.
Her TV stand up credits include Comedy Central Live Series 1& 2, Stand Up for Live Comedy (BBC3) and OF TV Comedy Creative Fund. Sketch wise she can be seen on
Hack Attack – Funny Parts (YouTube shorts), Comedy Confessions – Get Pulped (YouTube shorts) and Laugh Lessons (BBC3). She also writes for The Emily Atack Show (ITV2) and The Now Show (R4). Last year she perfomed at the Latitude Festival, supported Tig Notaro on her UK tour and appeared on The Guilty Feminist podcast. She also has a podcast called Personality Quiz which she co-hosts with Sharlin Jahan.
Read an interview with Mary O'Connell here.
TICKET LINK: https://sohotheatre.com/events/mary-oconnell-money-princess/
Watch Mary O'Connell below
