Katie Norris: Mother Succubus review – gothic comic enters a wickedly funny new era

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Norris swaps her larger-than-life Farm Fatale persona for something more autobiographical in this easygoing musical comedy

K atie Norris is on a familiar trajectory in standup, from debuting as a version of herself so heightened as to be caricature, to settling into a lower-key Katie she’s happy to be on stage. And happy, too, is anyone who’s followed that journey from 2024’s fantastic Farm Fatale , which established her gothic, cat-batty spinster persona, to this new show – more straight-bat autobiographical standup, about Norris leaving behind the male gaze.

But let us not overstate the case: there’s nothing normie about Norris in her third outing, in which she appears, imposing as ever, with a crow perched on her arm. In a show whose theme can best be described as loose-fitting, she’s here to address one reviewer’s description of her as “a man-eating succubus”. Far from it, she retorts. After 143 failed first dates, Norris is forswearing straight men and their favour, and entering a new era – where women join choirs, go wild swimming and fearlessly untangle roadkill from the undercarriage of their Ford Fiestas.

There’s an easygoing, urgency-free swing to all this, as Norris renders her life phase in song, faintly threatening backchat with the audience, and lurid standup painting herself in chiaroscuro as a premature old maid. But that characterisation is scaled back here, as we’re offered clearer-cut routines about starring as a Victorian sex worker, aged nine, in her school play; and fangirling the eye-opening 00s TV show Eurotrash.

I’m just as delighted by dialled-down Norris as I was by her larger-than-life forebear, as she roleplays a communal dip in Hampstead ponds, and performs a pop medley in character as a member of the Military Wives choir. Neither convinces you she’s quite ready to join their gang – even as this committed singleton’s narrative takes an unexpected turn towards coupledom. For Norris-watchers aware of her long-term stepmum ambitions, that finale, with its entertaining song about dating a weekend dad, can’t help but be cheering – before the show (at least when seen on the Edinburgh fringe) ends more than 10 minutes shy of the hour mark. I could have had more. Norris’s new era looks like being just as much fun as the previous one.