Gilded Balloon – Patter House, Edinburgh Fringe
The small business seminar industry will never be the same again after Niamh Denyer’s Get Blessed, a satirical character piece that centres around a workshop about the best way to throw a funeral. We are taken through a comically dry and self-aware hour of gags aimed at the ‘add-ons industry’.
Taking on the persona of Áine Reilly, opportunist extraordinaire and businesswoman who runs a series courses that teaches people how to market their services to plan and host various milestones events. In this particular case, we take part in a 2 day seminar on how to throw the perfect funeral, during which Reilly teaches us how to make sure the solemnity of the occasion doesn’t interfere with our own personal flair.
Denyer plays the role with a kind of insincere sincerity, a smugness and condescension that hides behind a false niceness, which brings a notable edge to the show . The humour in Get Blessed is delivered in such a straight forward manner that ends up nudging us towards the more absurd notes within the show, which makes the experience all the more enjoyable. The show revolves around Denyer’s execution of the character and ability to play an over the top role in a way that still makes it completely natural and realistic. Denyer tells us that she’s here to make our “depressing events less depressing” and she surely lives up to her promise. The mockery comes from the fact that Reilly is meant to be a caricature or an amalgamation of some of the most annoying quirks that are incredibly familiar to us and this nod to reality forms the base of the entire show.
Get Blessed draws on many sources for mockery, and Denyer really leans into the role and unlikeability of her adopted persona. One thing that is guaranteed is that you’ve never sat through a paid course like this.
By Katerina Partolina Schwartz
Photo credit: Mike Kunze
Pepper & Salt 
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