Edinburgh 2022: Review: RACHEL JACKSON: ALMOST FAMOUS, The Stand

Guest writer: L Gourley

It was obvious as soon as Rachel Jackson burst into the room in six-inch heels (practically skipping over the patch of floor where a drink had been spilled moments before without so much as pausing) that Almost Famous was going to be an energetic hour of stand up. Although "energetic" may be an understatement for Jackson's dramatic delivery, turning material that had every right to be devastating into punchlines that, at one point, elicited a genuine spit-take from the front row. Surely this must be a square on every Fringe comedian's bingo card?

Throughout the show, Jackson talks about her past as an aspiring actress - a stop on her quest to be famous famous. The influence this has had on her as a performer is obvious. She steps into characters from her life with practised ease, offering a vocal fry that early noughties 'it girls' would be proud of and a call back to her Edinburgh Dungeons days that could rival Jim Carrey at his peak. Feeding off the crowd's energy, Jackson commands the stage with such confidence that it's easy to forget the legitimate vulnerability behind some of her jokes: the casual misogyny and body-shaming of her acting career and, most notably, her lifelong battle with Pure O OCD.

In someone else's hands, her scathing takedown of people using OCD as a synonym for orderliness could have been preachy (as it would have a right to be), and her jokes about her most difficult obsessions could have left the crowd feeling awkward, but she navigates this expertly. Her blunt yet exuberant delivery when discussing some of her hardest moments generated the biggest laughs, yet also managed to be informative for those who still consider OCD as the trivialised "liking things tidy" disorder.

Falling back on the naturally self-deprecating and sardonic humour of the Scottish working-class, Almost Famous provides larger than life comedy (the true horror of working at Disneyland and the legacy of Scottish cannibals) kept grounded by the weight of its core content. The result is a well-balanced show, prevented from being too over-the-top or too maudlin by the contrasting themes of theatrical absurdity and well-placed anecdotes on the state of her mental health. In its ups and downs, the show parallels the rollercoaster of navigating life with complex mental illness all whilst trying to build a dream career.

Despite the dark humour at the centre of Almost Famous, the show ends on a note of hope. Rachel Jackson comments on her awe that, less than a year after finally confiding her OCD to her mother, she is performing a near-consistently sold-out show about it at one of the biggest arts festivals in the world. There's a powerful self-acceptance on display, after a lifetime of anxiety and self-judgement. More than that, Jackson's candid discussion on her most socially taboo OCD obsessions deconstructs the misunderstanding surrounding OCD and related mental illnesses, giving a voice to many like her who have lived with the quiet shame of similar anxieties and intrusive thoughts. In a world where comedy still uses complex and "othered" mental illnesses as the butt of the joke at survivors' expense, it is refreshing to see someone use their lived experience to build themselves up and tear down walls of stigma in the process. To incorporate all of that into a show that keeps its audience laughing from start to finish - without a predictable joke in sight - is no easy achievement, but Rachel Jackson does it masterfully. After all, there's a reason she's been personally endorsed by The Rock!

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