Kate Cheka: The Last Funny Woman review – pregnant standup calls for comedy industry to grow up

Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
Cheka considers her tendency to ‘live life like a joke’ in a frank hour, with her frustrations leaving a lasting impression

Kate Cheka wasn’t supposed to be here. After her debut hour two years ago, she swore she would never do the fringe again. But now she’s back, mic in hand and eight months pregnant, walking us through her life’s greatest romantic escapades, from Marseille to Texas and Nepal to Berlin. She does it all with mountains of energy – if you thought the fringe was exhausting at the best of times, just imagine doing all this with a baby on board.

But, as she will tell us later, maybe there’s a reason she wants to give everything she has to her last pre-birth show. In an hour that’s more storytelling than laugh-out-loud standup, she weaves in political eye-rolls, thoughts on the rise of the far right and her tendency to date white men with access to property.