Josie Long: Now Is The Time Of Monsters

Pleasance Dome

I left Josie Long’s Now Is The Time Of Monsters shell-shocked and with the understanding that I have greatly underestimated just how stand-up can make me feel. It’s such a powerful hour full of off-beat, effortless and deeply funny comedy, that speaks to something bigger and leaves us with a tonne of questions to reflect on to the point where we feel everything that Long says in the depths of our souls. 

 

Using extinct gigantic charismatic mega fauna to centre the show, Long builds an intricate web of storytelling that encapsulates the emotionality and existentialism of the human experience. Because that’s what this show’s heart is; it’s about monsters and what does it mean to be alive right now at a time when our world feels devastated and hopeless, what does monster even mean, is it the animals that are either too small or too big or is it the people who hunt and destroy everything to extinction. The questions that Long asks and makes us to ask are cosmic, forcing us to reflect quite a lot and come to an understanding about not only what she says but our place in this world. But in raising these issues, Long has the opposite of the depressing effect that these questions and topics usually have. Instead of nihilism and apathy, we laugh and feel hope. It’s one big carpe diem of a comedy show, a call to arms and Long is leading the charge . 

”Long may just make optimists of the will of us all.”

A lot of the emotional impact of Now Is The Time Of Monsters is that it doesn’t always feel like a comedy show. Yes, it’s fast, frenetic and hilarious, but there’s also a restrained anger, sadness, and  reverence with which Long speaks that echoes in our bones, an imprint of these grand ideas and longing; connection to something bigger, a collective experience that Long’s show speaks to. And in that, we find relatability in being part of something bigger than we can imagine, that makes us ask our own questions, that feels like we’ve had a shot of caffeine injected into our veins. Now Is The Time Of Monsters is more than a stand-up show, it feels like waking up. 

 

Over the course of this show, it does appear to an extent that Long is externalising an internal monologue. Long’s comedy is big, and not in the way that she builds up pictures, jokes and descriptions, but in the fast-paced manner in which she launches information, thoughts and feelings at us, keeping us engaged throughout with her larger-than-life stage presence. It’s hyperactive to the point where Long is bouncing off the edges of the stage. It’s an energy that feeds into her comedy to the point it’s not just what she says but how she says it that’s funny. As much as she covers rather serious topics, with everything Long says there’s a glimmer of silliness that we can’t help laughing at as she oscillates between a deep sincerity and deep sarcasm. It’s the raising children in a world in a downward spiral, but in a way in which they will one day lead the revolution and can identify class traitors. It’s the wrong size horses and other cursed-looking animals. She is not afraid to make us uncomfortable with her comedy, because as much as Long plays it off and diffuses any built up negativity, there are elements that are deeply unsettling. Yes, the old world may be dying, but Long makes us feel like a new world will be born. And doesn’t that just make us feel alive?

 

In these troubled times, everyone needs to see Now Is The Time Of Monsters. It goes without saying that Long is talented, but Now Is The Time Of Monsters is not just a gem, it’s the entire crown jewels. It’s a show that touches our hearts, provides balm to the soul and gives us some dangerous hope. Long is changing her part of the world and words cannot cover how meaningful, how significant this show is. Long may just make optimists of the will of us all. 

 

By Katerina Partolina Schwartz

Photo credit: Stephanie Gibson