Rachel Parris: Poise: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
Musical numbers, political satire and musings on turning 40 from The Mash Report comedian
Year: 2024
Rachel Parris came to prominence on The Mash Report but she's been around for years, as part of the hit improv stage show Austentatious, acting on TV comedies and as a musical comedian in her own right. She's about to turn 40 in her 90-minute show Poise, the starting point for which is that Parris is now all the things she thought she'd never be - a wife, a mother and, perhaps most extraordinarily in these straitened times, a homeowner.
As such, a thread in this show is finding herself - but Poise is about as far from millennial naval-gazing as you can get. Parris is a confident and undeniable onstage presence, a comic who has mastered the fine line between self-deprecation and controlling a room as she takes us on a tour of her current anxieties and such absurd situations as being asked to be the brand ambassador for a sex toy site.
The show also involves plenty of songs, including an audience singalong in which Parris's music teacher background becomes very clear indeed; and there are several razor-toothed excursions into politics. She has a particular point of view here and, even if you don't agree with her, she's so pointedly hilarious in her manner of expression that it doesn't really matter. Rachel Parris is a woman of many facets in short, and it seems likely she'll just get deeper, more interesting and more funny with every future show.
The comic is just one of a variety of stand-up acts available to watch as part of ITVX's free selection from specialist comedy streamer NextUp - you'll also find sets there from Paul Sinha, Geoff Norcott, Jason Byrne, Jo Caulfield and Parris's husband Marcus Brigstocke. (93 minutes)
