Are you a failure? A reject? Alone? Good. Named ‘one to watch’ by Rolling Stone Magazine, cult comedian/leader Hannah Platt is primed to prey on your vulnerabilities in Cult Classic, a show exploring sacrifice, self-worth and whether, once you’ve sacrificed everything else, you should sacrifice your soul too.
For the first 15 minutes of Cult Classic, I thought I knew exactly where this review was heading.
Three stars.
Something wasn’t quite clicking. I wasn’t getting that main-character energy from Hannah Platt that I wanted. She appeared slightly nervous and seemed to be finding her way with the audience while working through the material she had prepared.
There was some early audience interaction involving one audience member which provided light relief and gave us an early glimpse of what Hannah can do when she moves away from the confines of her prepared set.
Then came a joke about the WI.
It received a rather muted response, and you could sense Hannah’s disappointment that it hadn’t landed quite as intended.
But then something changed.
As Cult Classic progressed, Hannah appeared to relax. Her confidence grew and suddenly I started seeing a different comedian emerge.
Interestingly, it wasn’t necessarily the prepared material which caused my opinion of the show to change. It was Hannah’s ad-libbing, spontaneous remarks and willingness to go off script.
That’s where she really came alive.
Every Fringe audience is different. Something which gets a huge laugh one afternoon might receive silence the next, and part of the skill of stand-up is being able to read that room and spot opportunities for comedy which weren’t necessarily there when you wrote the set.
Hannah demonstrated that ability.
Once she became more comfortable, she started finding humour in the room itself. These unscripted moments felt natural, and I’d encourage her to trust that instinct even more.
There’s also considerably more bubbling underneath Cult Classic than simply a succession of jokes.
Hannah comes across as a genuinely likeable person with a chequered history. She talks openly about therapy, traumatic experiences and her own questions surrounding self-worth. At points she even questions her future as a comedian and what she might do instead.
There are discussions about Clitheroe and the limited opportunities she feels exist there, alongside reflections on her own experiences and where she fits into the world.
This is raw, honest and heartfelt material.
The subject of cults naturally returns throughout the performance – it’s the framework around which Cult Classic has been constructed – but for me, some of the strongest moments were actually the tender ones.
Those little glimpses underneath the comedian.
The moments where Hannah isn’t simply trying to deliver the next joke but allows us to see some of the person behind them.
There’s an interesting vulnerability there, and when Hannah combines that vulnerability with her natural ability to improvise, Cult Classic becomes considerably stronger.
I suspect this is also a show which will get better and better as its Fringe run progresses. Once any remaining nerves disappear and Hannah becomes completely comfortable with the material and her audiences, there’s plenty here to work with.
My biggest recommendation would be to nail those opening 15 minutes.
Bring more of the confidence, spontaneity and audience interaction we see later in the production into the beginning. Perhaps involve a few more audience members and allow Hannah’s ability to react to the room to become a bigger part of the show.
Because by the end, my original three-star assessment had disappeared.
Hannah Platt won me over.
Cult Classic is funny, vulnerable and refreshingly honest, with its strongest moments appearing when Hannah loosens her grip on the prepared material and simply allows herself to respond to the people sitting in front of her.
Sometimes the best joke isn’t the one you’ve written.
It’s the one you discover in the room.
★★★★ 4 Stars, Funny, vulnerable and wonderfully human.
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/hannah-platt-cult-classic
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