Review of Mhairi Black: Politics Isn’t For Me

Mhairi Black left the Commons on 30th May this year, and she’s ready to talk about it… well, some of it. The draw of this show was mainly hearing what my favourite ex MP had to say about what really goes on in Westminster, and it’s clearly been a big draw for many this Fringe.

I was surprised and delighted to hear Mhairi was going straight into a standup show, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The National Museum of Scotland was a great venue for Mhairi, and of course they were delighted to have her there – as it was her last show of this year’s Fringe, she was presented with a massive bouquet to say thank you.

I did check to make sure I wasn’t allowed to take photos during the show (nae luck), but I did manage to snap the promo photo for the show before it started.

The vibe

I was lucky to get a front row seat in the audience of the same auditorium I’d watched talks for as part of the museum lates series, and it was a fairly full room that was buzzing with excitement for what we were about to hear.

Mhairi came on without much fanfare, and set the tone by saying it was the final show, so “gonnae not ’cause any trouble”? Or something to that effect. It was well received, and instantly relaxed the room.

The show itself

This was a really funny, honest, promising look back at Mhairi’s time as a Westminster MP – almost 10 whole years of it. I’m not sure how she managed to put up with it for so long, but I’m impressed that she did!

It’s no surprise how comfortable and confident Mhairi is on stage, as she first takes us through some slides of her Paisley upbringing – a far cry from some of the later slides she shows (along with some stats) of other MPs and their experiences of Eton.

She highlights that is became clear why David Cameron had described Eton as “just like school” upon a visit there – they have the same carpets and decor, although there’s hopefully no oil painting of 15-year-old Jacob Rees-Mogg at Westminster.

Mhairi offers insights into things like the parliamentary procedure of division (and that there’s really a dude with a massive sword to force you out if you went into the wrong room), the online abuse she’d received over the years, and… what happens when you’re live in the House of Commons when you put your fingers in your pocket and realise your KitKat has melted.

Having become the youngest MP since the 1832 Reform Act, you can tell Mhairi’s got a LOT to say, and she’s only just getting started. She teased that in the coming years, she’ll share all her stories, but with some of the audience calling for her to be PM one day, we might have to wait a bit!

Overall

Despite maybe not getting as many juicy, salacious, hilarious stories as I’d hoped for, I still really enjoyed the show, and hope to see more of Mhairi’s standup in future.