Abigoliah Schamaun: It’s Pronounced Abigoliah Schamaun @ Gilded Balloon

As far as crowds at a comedy show go, this was perhaps the most diverse I have been among and Abigoliah Schamaun certainly noticed it too, joking that we perfectly fit her target demographic of 20-something year old women and 60-something year old men.

Schamaun’s fifth show at the Fringe delves in to her childhood and deconstructs the moments that have made her who she is today using visual props from a file her late father put together documenting her life, including a bizarre psychological evaluation from when she was just eight years old. Taking the audience on a journey from her childhood in to her adulthood, Schamaun fills the show with plenty of hilarious stories about her school days, her sex life and moving from Kentucky to New York and, more recently, to London. However, there are also some pretty emotional moments throughout, particularly when Schamaun discusses her family, which really draw you in and make it more than just another stand-up comedy show.

Although Schamaun may appear slightly intimidating at first, she has a really good rapport with the audience and at no point do you feel uncomfortable watching her, even when she is talking about some pretty explicit sexual experiences – although I can’t speak for the group of 60-something men, who clearly didn’t know what they had let themselves in for. Schamaun is a fearless, no-holds-barred kind of comedian, who clearly isn’t bothered about sharing even her most embarrassing stories as long as she is making people laugh.