Before going on stage, Josie Long consumed a green salad, without dressing, a plum, and a packet of nuts. She drank water. In spite of this, her performance was raucous.
Josie Long alternated between standing on the same floor level as the audience, and standing on the stage. I have stood on that stage. It is small, and covered in a very fogey-looking carpet. She spoke about the experience of performing at The Red Shed, but she didn’t mention the carpet.
I love Josie Long’s vision of socialism.
The funniest part of her performance was not about politics. It was about things that putatively might happen in the shower. I won’t tell you the subject matter, because I don’t write spoilers, but it was cosmically funny.
Josie Long applied the same technique to the Red Shed raffle, in aid of the booklet to celebrate 50 years of The Red Shed. She made the raffle funny.
While she was talking about her home town of Orpington, in Kent, I was working out how old Josie Long would have been during the ’84-85 Miners’ strike. I think she was about 2. This explains why there was no mention of the Kent miners, who went on strike in ’84-85.
Josie Long’s humour is in her face, mainly her eyes, in her voice and delivery, and in her body. She has one of the most subversive bodies I have ever seen. The easiest way to make a mess of left-wing humour is to take the piss out of everything. Josie Long builds as much as she tears down.
Josie Long needs to play Unity Works, the next time she comes to Wakefield.
iamhyperlexic 