Review – Demi Lardner: Limbless Cagefighter
Demi Lardner is the actor and co-writer behind the award-winning show Wolf Creek the Musical, so if you liked that one chances are you’ll find her solo show Limbless Cagefighter uproarious. Full disclosure though, this show contains far less brutal murders and men in wigs.
In Limbless Cagefighter, Demi tells all about her life thus far, plus a bit of what is probably yet to come. Let me put it this way: the girl is either not already in her late forties, and was lying to us, or she has the kind of surgeon Joan Rivers can only dream about.
Demi’s delivery is flawless. She often sets up anecdotes and at the last minute twists them into unexpected punch lines that are not only very funny but a little bit evil too. The sort of topics she riffs on range from stuff about her dad to her forays into the adult world via sordid share-housing and the sexual capacity of ducks. The show also has interesting little segments, involving things such as drawings and pre-recorded sound, and she delivers all of this gleefully and with a puckish air that makes her material quiver and spark with a thrilling comedic pulse.
On this particular night, the show ran short thanks to a no-show from a friend who was supposed to come and help her act out a play she wrote. Demi is most apologetic, “Sorry guys, I’ll buy you all a beer downstair. I mean it”.
I didn’t stick around to see if Demi followed through on that rare promise of free alcohol, though that kind of promise is characteristic of her as a performer. She is fresh, informal, a little scruffy around the edges, perhaps. But most importantly she is a gifted comedian who will make your belly hurt with laughter. I highly recommend that you see Demi Lardner this Fringe. Go now, while the tickets are still cheap and she is still relatively unheard of.
