All That She Wants promises a night of jokes, sexy secrets and life hacks. It immediately conjures up images of sleepovers where you spend the night doing makeovers and gossiping about crushes. I was intrigued, so decided to check myself in for a “girls night in”.
Aliya Kanani and Gill Cordiner have a beautiful chemistry and bounce off each other effortlessly. They’re both wickedly cheeky and I would have been happy if the whole show was just them trading barbs.
However, All That She Wants serves up a selection of female comedians for you to sample. This is great for comedy lovers who have trouble committing to a new comedian. Just like a blind date, no one wants to be stuck with a comedian who they can’t connect with for an hour. Robyn Perkins and He Huang were on the roster when I attended. Both of them were crowd pleasers, drawing laughter from the audience during their short sets. There was also an unexpected cameo by Emo Majak, who gamely allowed everyone to roast him.
That’s the thing about this show. While the comedians are perfectly hilarious, audience participation is essential for the slumber party vibe. The audience I was with was fairly reserved, which left little for our hostesses to work with. I would have loved to see more of Aliya and Gill feeding off the audience input. They are great conversational comedians who have no trouble massaging a punchline out of an anecdote. So my advice for maximum enjoyment is to arm yourself with a story or fuel up with some liquid courage before attending this show.
Admittedly, I was tired so my brain struggled to come up with a sexy secret (so I went with a life hack* instead!). While 11pm is early in slumber party time, it probably isn’t after a long day of work on a Friday. Nevertheless, I can’t complain as I had a good giggle before bedtime and I slept well knowing that part proceeds from the session are going to a charity which sends young girls to school.
All That She Wants runs on Fridays and Saturdays in the Pleasure Garden. Snag your tickets here.
*for those of you who are interested, my life hack was to block people you aren’t remotely interested in on dating sites. You’ll be surprised by how many people who are on there for “target practice” and don’t keep track of people they’ve already tried to hit up before.