Titi Lee: Good Girl Gone Baddie

Edinburgh Fringe – Just The Tonics

Titi Lee’s Good Girl Gone Baddie plays with the stand-up art form in ways that we’re perhaps not so familiar with, piling on material that aren’t necessarily relevant or substantive to push Lee’s overall throughline, which because of everything else going on, isn’t particularly clear either. 

It does indicate a potential lack of security in the material; the musical intervals are just that, so it begs the question whether they’re relevant. It’s a lot of experimentation with no clear source of comedy – which should be the central focus. Almost too much is going on at once for us to be able to focus our attention effectively. The hour is so nebulous in terms of material that it is difficult to see how it exactly links up together, there’s no clear progression and the material seems to start and stop so often that it comes off as rather disjointed, making it is quite easy to get lost. It’s certainly different from anything else out there, whether that is a strength is another question. 

“It’s certainly different from anything else out there, whether that is a strength is another question. ”

It’s just a nice show, Lee is very open and honest to the point of vulnerability but doesn’t dwell on it, and instead uses it to push Good Girl Gone Baddie forward. The most it does is cast a slight poignancy to the rest of the show. They possess a mild humor that pokes fun at and makes observations about stereotypes, in an amused tone that is almost representative of a quirked eyebrow and a, “Can you believe this?” It’s something about their stage presence and the fact that they don’t have much of one and even though at times they use a kind of quick-fire approach to their delivery, it doesn’t quite land as impactful as it might if they had managed to assert themselves more.

Good Girl Gone Baddie is not a bad show, but it also doesn’t stand out in any remarkable way. The slight detachment from the material caused by the constant deviation from the comedy undermines the hour significantly. Lee does have the Sisyphean task of having to push us over the midday hump and knock us into a sense of alertness, but the material doesn’t really pick up enough to do so.

By Katerina Partolina Schwartz

Photo Credit: Leo Hsiao