This Review is from August 2024

Experienced comedian, Jojo Sutherland, presents her latest show, finding the funny in the changing generational attitudes towards bringing up children. An audience member is invited keep score. Who was the better mum? Jojo, or her mother?

It’s performed at 11:30am, which is first thing in the morning EFT (Edinburgh Fringe Time). Perhaps, Jojo teases, she hasn’t been to bed yet.

Throughout the show, we are treated, and it is a treat, to excepts from a 2005 episode of Wife Swap (Ch4) called Jojo and Dawn. We meet the comedian’s family and her then husband who have swapped Jojo for a more conventional mum and wife, Dawn. It’s fascinating how dated Dawn’s attitudes seem. Based on the evidence of the TV show, Jojo was ahead of her time.

Back on stage, there’s some great stand up around evolving attitudes towards menstruation and the menopause. She tells a favourite gag from her club set about becoming menopausal and visiting the doctor. It’s a very funny bit that gets a laugh even if you know what’s coming.

Experiences of losing children in public are shared with and among the audience members. Every parent has lost their kid while out and about at least once, and Jojo, as ever, has a cracking tale.

I saw, I Wish You Were My Mum, very early in its run, and so it did sag a little in places. It’s a brand-new show and the comedian loses her place a couple of times. But this is the kind of thing that the Edinburgh Fringe is for. Performing every day for three weeks gets rid of the kinks. Once its ready I’m sure a tour will be forthcoming, where I’ll be delighted to see it again.

Martin Walker

Tickets HERE

Reviews of Jojo Sutherland, I Wish You Were My Mum (Careful What You Wish For) collated by the British Comedy Guide HERE

Jojo’s Profile HERE