Katherine Ryan: Comedy’s avenging angel makes Russell Brand squirm

Returning with a very different stand-up show, the Canadian comic is interested in how men reacted when the Brand scandal broke

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Katherine Ryan’s courage as a performer has been evident since her first Edinburgh show in 2011 when she posed, heavily pregnant, in a star-spangled bikini for the poster. Since then, she’s been part of an unaffiliated group of female comics – including Luisa Omielan, Felicity Ward and Rose Matafeo – whose shows are sometimes closer to revivalist meetings. 
Last night in Tunbridge Wells, there were more than a few hen parties in, but the crowd was eclectic and joyful. Old Katherine would stride that stage in glittering outfits, ripping into celebrities, men and her white trash upbringing with an acidic euphoria. This show was different. 
Since her last tour, two unrelated events have changed her material. The Canadian comedian has gone from being a single mum to a married mother-of-three, having wed her former American football-playing high school sweetheart Bobby after reuniting on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? – possibly the most Katherine Ryan romance imaginable. And she has been valorised as one of very few comedians in the UK’s vast, gossipy stand-up community prepared to call out Russell Brand as a predator before he was publicly accused of sexual assault and abuse last September. (Brand has denied all allegations.) The former shapes her show but she doesn’t shy away from the latter. 
She won’t name “the predator”, she tells the crowd. She’s wrestled with it – pronounced “Russelled” (wink wink). But what interests her now is how men reacted when the story broke. At the time she attacked Brand – sniping at him with thinly veiled references to abuse on Comedy Central’s roast battle and all but naming him in an interview with Louis Theroux – she explains, everyone knew what he was up to: comedians, actors, journalists and police. As soon as the story broke, cops and hacks just wanted other women’s names, the ones with stories to tell. Meanwhile, comedians and actors all texted her “hey Katherine, how’s the family?” Her husband, who speaks man, explained they wanted proof she wasn’t discussing them. She cut and pasted her reply: “Do you really think you should be texting me after everything that’s happened?” But, perhaps because she now has said husband and a son, she’s almost affectionate about the men who panicked. 
And that’s the new tone throughout. She loves the boys in her life, and she’s also kind of exhausted. She’s preaching to mothers now, not girls on the lash. The celebrity roasting is largely gone. Perhaps her sitcom and Netflix special increases the risk of meeting these people. She does grass up reality star Tommy Fury’s stupidity, not just for losing his celebrity fiancée Molly-Mae but for appearing on her team on a panel show and, when asked for countries beginning with H, answering Hamsterdam. Her waspishness returns in the second half when dealing with audience texts, solving problems and delivering unrepeatable advice. It’s here that the whoops and the quips return.
Booking until June 2025; livenation.co.uk
4/5
4/5