Just the tonic at Marlin’s Wynd
Aug 1 – 25 (20.05)

Material:   Delivery:  Laughs:  Room:

Just the Tonic at Marlin’s Wynd was another plush Edinburgh venue, relaxing and comfortable. Joining the Fringe’s usual array of stand-up acts, comes Stateside lady Naomi Karavani, who quickly launched in to a series of quips about herself and her life. This set the tone for a performance full of thoughtfulness, honesty and great jokes with cunning, funny punchlines. Her subjects ranged her life as a Jewish woman & beyond, experiences covering desires both met and unachieved – her father’s disappointment in her career as stand-up, for example, and her brother being arrested 30 times. She made me laugh out loud at the sheer irony of her father being more proud of his jailhouse son while berating Naomi for her comedy. It was light-hearted, but nonetheless struck you as a brave thing to do, this fearless determination to express herself without holding back.

Moving to topics such as drugs, archaeology and women’s liberation, sarcasm was her new ammunition as she took pot-shots at all of them. As she talked about her personal America Naomi Karavani took berating to an entirely new level. Her sarcasm was charmingly, well prepared and could only have come from a life vigorously lived and loved. Fresh, exuberant, playful and uncomfortably honest, she drew us into a properly constructed exploration of the joys of life, with all its hardships, all its ups and downs.

Daniel Donnelly