Review: Abi Clarke: (Role) Model, Fringe 2024

Abi Clarke was recommended by a friend, so I secured my ticket, bought a pint and a post-dinner scone at the Pleasance. That’s a familiar Fringe routine but the rest of the night would be a mystery as I knew nothing else about the upcoming show.

I thought I’d been pranked as Abi began by awkwardly admitting she’s an internet influencer. For context, I’ve “not an influencer” written in most of Edinburgh Reviews’ social media bio. “Influencer” can be a pejorative label at times. Had I been set up to be riled by a nemesis? Was I about to sit through an hour of marketing?

Abi jokes that if Influencers went on strike, the world might be better. I suspect Abi might have some of the same concerns about the behaviour of some Influencers as I do. Some are hardly role models.

As it happens, though, I think Abi’s been more of a content creator, which makes me think she’s already more of a role model.

The dancing-with-parent videos put together in the lockdown seem to be the slight cringe that Abi is awkward about. Surely, those videos were cutting-edge at the time and only feel passe now.

I hadn’t been pranked, I don’t think. I’ve not done an audit of everything Abi Clarke has said on social media, but she doesn’t strike me as a “give me freebies, and I’ll video myself enjoying them” type of person. I bet she’s had product deals given her following, but given that “(Role) Model” is a mea culpa of unworthy thoughts, I doubt she has the false sense of entitlement to bully small businesses.

I’d call Abi Clarke a comedian. She’s also selling out large Edinburgh Festival Fringe venues on the first and rainy Sunday night of the season.

Tone

“(Role) Model” isn’t an Instagram Reel, but it is a multimedia show. Abi has some slides and videos to share, although most of the screen time is used to display laundry.

There’s that stalwart of standup shows, the tall metal stool, with Abi in front of the crowd. She has too much energy to sit on it, although she briefly flops over the top, lying bent over the seat like a nervous superhero practising their flying pose. The rest of the time, the stool is a focus for the audience to watch, and Abi uses the prop well.

“(Role) Model” isn’t physical theatre but with a presentation screen in the background, a red stool in the foreground, and Abi working the space in between; there is a modern and 3D feeling from this gig that you don’t get with many others.

The tone is very much about trying to be a better person, a role model, and it’s tied closely to Abi moving on in her life. She’s moved out from her parents house, gone to London and found a flat share. These are all terrifying things to do, especially for the COVID generation, and kudos for Abi for trying to be a role model.

The catch, sadly, is that Abi feels the pressure of society and its warping effect for the negative. For example, here’s a young comedian who imagines that she might go missing one day and also wants to manage the photograph selection press use to tell the story. She admits this is down to vanity because people judge her based on that photo choice.

I think it’s ambitious to tell a story like this without coming across as someone with a little too much vanity, neurosis, or shallowness for the audience not to judge them a bit harshly. Abi nearly, but not wholly pulls it off.

What to expect

There’s little audience interaction—at the very least, one opening mechanic needs to get out of the way for Abi’s story to progress. After that, though, you should be able to safely sit and watch the show.

I think “(Role) Model” is Abi’s coming-of-age story. Through a series of anecdotes and observations, we follow Abi to London, her dealings with estate agents, dating, relationship with her parents, career, and network of friends.

It’s young person stuff, but Abi often made me laugh.

I don’t think there are any stretches, but some jokes are too long in hatching, or Abi does too well in foreshadowing the punch line, and the result is you’ve worked out the end before Abi gets her delivery in. I probably would have laughed at those, too, if Abi had beaten me to the end.

Expect a young audience, though, and based on my experience, they’ll be a receptive audience who are going through a lot of what Abi Clarke is going through and, therefore, all the more appreciative of it.

Overall

Abi Clarke’s “(Role) Model” sold out on the first Sunday of the Fringe, which is often a quiet day. The young audience was in stitches, and even this old fogie was laughing.

It’s not a performance that always portrays Abi in the most flattering of lights, though ironic since it’s about the desire to always be portrayed in a flattering light.