WEEKENDER | Patti Harrison Live x Just For Laughs x Vogue Theatre

"You better start agreeing with me right now!"

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson

Granville—(February 17, 2024) On Saturday night, I spent over an hour witnessing Ohio-born actress/comedian Patti Harrison perform her truly bizarre but side-splitting My Huge Tits Huge Because They Are Infected Not Fake! show—previously seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and New York Comedy Festival—alongside hundreds of other fans seated inside the Vogue Theatre as part of the annual ten-day-long eighth annual Just for Laughs Vancouver live comedy festival.

Harrison's background and upbringing as the youngest of seven children, raised by a Vietnamese mother and American father, and being an openly trans artist, definitely gives her a rather unique comedic perspective that she was not shy about sharing on stage. She constantly referred to her "narcissistic therapy journey" in between comically screaming insults at the crowd for perceived slights about being judged.

She built up to some masterful bits that were intentionally offensive despite promising not to be mean before finally acknowledging halfway through the set the massive prosthetic fake breasts strapped to her chest. As the name of the show suggests, this runner of a physical joke was perfectly strung along before a jaw-dropping final gag that was more than certainly a big, laugh-out-loud payoff that surely shocked those not familiar with Harrison's penchant for gross-out comedy.

Together Together

It was impressive just how many different comedic techniques and styles Harrison employed to subvert audience expectations. Interchanging between shocking asides simulating sex with a talking mouse (yes, I'm talking about the title character of Stuart Little) and practically begging the audience to cancel her for some truly hilarious but highly offensive out-of-context one-liners, the comedian told sincere morsels of stories about growing up biracial in rural Ohio with an immigrant mother.

Harrison most definitely delivered a totally wild, bravura comic performance, enrapturing the crowd in stitches. Part stand-up, part storytelling, part table read, and there was even singing, My Tits Huge certainly went for it as the comedian walked the line of totally antagonizing her audience and carefully manipulating their reactions in an inspired fashion. What we witnessed regarding the sheer volume of subversive cringe humour shared is mostly indescribable.

JFL Vancouver 2024 runs until February 24th, with comedians performing live shows at venues across the city.


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