EDINBURGH 2023: Review: OLIVIA XING: PARTY SCHOOL, Just The Tonic At The Grassmarket Centre

Debuting at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the young age of 20, Olivia Xing presents a solo hour of comedy in her show Party School.

Xing opens the nights proceedings by riffing on a bad review she had received a few days prior, explaining that the critic had attributed her "broken English" as a major reason for the show's failure. Olivia does cleverly quip that she was made in China and therefore makes no promises about the quality of the show, though unfortunately it must be admitted that her broken English - which is no fault of her own - does cause issues as far as the delivery and flow of certain jokes go, therefore having a major impact on the rest of the show.

Regardless of this, it seems as though Party School never would have succeeded as an hour of stand up due to the poor structural problems throughout her routines. She often begins a line of thought around the pronounciation of her name or on politics and simply never finishes said thought. Similar to the flow of her jokes, the show also lacks any real flow or cohesion to it, seeming more like a slew of thoughts and stories spilling out rather than a genuine narrative.

Perhaps the biggest turn off from the show is Olivia's repeated stating that this is a very political show with a lot of political jokes, though there are never really any jokes, more just her declaring her own opinions (which are far from unpopular, the whole room is in agreement with her) on politics. Occasionally she'll make a slightly funnier comment, like how it feels as though Italy have been forgiven for their part in World War Two but Germany have not, which of course is because Italy has better food.

There are bright spots to the show but these usually come in the more spontaneous moments of the show, such as when she said she had experimented with drugs in college and when asked "which ones?" by an audience member she said "mainly birth control pills". 

It is clear Olivia has something about her, a form of charisma or natural spark that does make her a draw to audiences and these off-the-cuff moments prove that she is funny, it is just in her comedic timings and the writing of actual jokes that she fails to impress. However, considering Xing is only 20 years old, there seems to be plenty of room for growth for the young comedian.

Olivia Xing: Party School isn't a great hour of comedy but it isn't a terrible one either. Just as there are negatives to the show there are also positives and through the cracks it is clear that there is something about Olivia Xing that works. Whether this can be honed and mastered though is up to Xing.

Olivia Xing: Party School runs at Just the Tonic at the Grassmarket Centre until 27 August.

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