Like fantastic string quartets there seems to be a few older female stand up’s doing the festival rounds and this show from Sandra Risser is an interesting, and funny, perspective on life and aging. Risser’s a cougar, and - for those that don’t know what a cougar is – it’s an older woman who dates younger men.

Being in her seventh decade (but still looking good) Risser get’s a lot of choice. Her sharp and insightful comedy is based on her journey from humble roots in Sioux City, Iowa through the drugs and free love of the 60's and 70's and into (and out of)  the corporate world to follow her destiny as a bodybuilder, actor and comic. She’s been around this broad, and she ain’t ashamed of sharing.

On stage, looking slightly frail and with a visible tremor this cougar was not quite what I expected, however after having being pierced by those sharp blue eyes and laughing along with a terribly dark joke, the feline strength of this charming lady came shining through.

Her paws might shake but the claws are sharp and when they come out (and like any wild and untamed animal–they do) they rip through the pretentious soft underbelly of our ideas of ageing, and lay bare the pulsating sensuality at the heart of all human existence.

From humble beginnings in Sioux City to San Francisco and the diversity of that vibrant city, Risser’s life has been both eventful and funny and by the lovely mechanism of getting us all to put questions in a hat and drawing them out randomly, Risser gets to mine that load of experience for golden nuggets of anecdote, thick silvered veins of humour, (some varicose) and the occasional 30 caret diamond. 

I’ve seen a couple of show’s like this, the ‘ask anything, tell all’ premise and most stand-ups will dodge the questions they don’t’ want to answer. Not this cougar, oh no, there was a delicate honesty to some of the answers that touched me, she managed to get a joke out of each and every yarn (and that’s some feat!) and brought forth some wonderful anecdotes.

When she talked about the smell of her Grandmother, all baked cookies and eccentric cooking I was transported back into that long ago kitchen, with the stony plains of Iowa stretching off beyond the kitchen windows. It was a powerfully evocative moment. This is a graceful woman with the ability to be astonishingly frank, funny and moving just by being herself and is also a self proclaimed slut.

Now that’s some combo!  Wrap it all up with the most soothing (and dangerously beguiling) Southern Belle accent and you’re guaranteed a laugh a minute night.  Lovely.

Catch her now until the 23rd May @ The Temple, Western Rd

Tickets and more info here:
She is also presenting her (theatrical) show "Amy, Fate and Me" More info here: