Susan Calman - The 68 Comeback Special, Udderbelly Festival

Whimsical, feisty standup Susan Calman christens the lineup of this year’s Udderbelly Festival with a one-off hourlong work-in-progress date to kick off her 2014 UK tour. The 68 Comeback Special is her 4th consecutive show at the Southbank’s annual nipple-shaped purple comedyfest, and tipped to be her most passionate, political piece to date. 

There’s a reason Calman is one of the most popular comedians on the radio. A regular fixture on BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, and star of the excellent 2013 solo series Susan Calman Is Convicted (awarded Best Radio Comedy by the Writers Guild of GB), there’s a wit and silliness about her that it’s nigh-on impossible not to be won over by. But personality underpins polemic in her shows, and her act tapdances lithely between candid anecdotes about cardio, Caledonia and cat-wrangling to topical essayism on Thatcher’s Clause 28 and the imagined life and times of the Bond villain Rosa Klebb. 

The 68 Comeback Show follows on the heels of two sell-out tours: Out of My Mind (2013) and This Lady’s Not For Turning Either (Soho Theatre, 2012), both of which powerfully and emotionally delineated the case for equal marriage. Calman isn’t giving much away about the content of this show, but we expect it to follow this same gutsy, human trajectory. This work-in-progress show  is a great opportunity to see the material for this year’s tour coming together, with the added value of allowing you to see more of the Susan behind the act.