The search for 'that girl'Dulcie Whadcock and Ella Burns

Sunglasses-clad Dulcie Whadcock and Ella Burns, girl-bossed so hard they made it all the way from their humble roots as undergraduate Cambridge Footlights telling knock-knock jokes at the ADC Theatre, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And boy, am I glad they did.

After a very unfortunate freshers week experience where I attended a Footlights stand-up show, having drunk simply not enough gin (there wasn’t enough gin in the world), I vowed from that point onwards that I would never review a Footlight’s show. I’m already a student journalist, ergo I have enough enemies at Cambridge University without adding the Emma Thompson wannabes to my list.  

"Funny, flirty and 100% Fringe-worthy"

So, it took a lot for me to break my ‘no reviewing Cambridge student’s shows’ rule. But Girlboss’s catchy marketing promising ‘a series of fast-paced character sketches’ and the finite answer to the long-puzzling question ‘why should women work?’ broke my reserve.

Funny, flirty and 100% Fringe-worthy. Dulcie and Ella had me in stiches with a serious of sketches which included two mums fighting for Facebook fame on their children’s sport’s day, “It’s about the kids, really!”, and a French perfume advert spoof that nearly made me wee with laughter, and regret that pink gin and tonic I drank in the bar beforehand.

Despite being made to feel a little uncomfortable by the omnipresent thigh of the man sat to my left taking up nearly all of my leg room (take note men, manspreading is not very girlboss), and a stream of drunken, inconsiderate leaving-and-reappearing audience members, the performers, unlike me, didn’t seem to be too distracted. But it would have been impossible not to have been. It’s to their credit that they carried on as well as they did, but I think it did affect their performance a tiny bit.

Their closing song about what it takes to be ‘that girl’ was very clever indeed. And as they strummed away heartily on their inflatable prop guitars warbling soulfully about the uncomfortableness of thongs, among other universal struggles, I felt that they’d fulfilled the brief of female-comedy-sketch show pretty spot-on.

"I’d been pretty feminist-comedy’ed out by this point in the Fringe, but Girlboss was a refreshing new take on the struggles of womanhood"

Their dry delivery of witty one-liners was exceptional. I’d been pretty feminist-comedy’ed out by this point in the Fringe, but Girlboss was a refreshing new take on the struggles of womanhood- full of gags without being a female comedy show that is solely concerned with being a FEMALE comedy show. The man-splaining date skit was one not to be missed- although I’m sure one that hit pretty close to home for anyone trying to date men at Cambridge university (it seems the girls’ sketch may partly be based on real life experience. Oof.)


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The only improvements that I would maybe make, is that I felt that the girls were somewhat missing an opportunity for audience interaction. The sketches were almost so smooth and so seamless, that when the odd drunken funny heckle got hurled their way, it seemed strange that the girls didn’t respond to, or at least acknowledge this. For Girlboss to be a perfect 5 stars, I’d maybe say they need to loosen up their routine a bit and leave some room for experimentation based on where the mood of the night takes the show, however I realise this is much easier said than done.

Beneath the skits, however it was clear that Girlboss has a golden message: you don’t need to be picture perfect, insta-worthy, and silky smooth to be a woman, to be a true girlboss, they seem to say, all that is really required is to be able to run with the inconsistencies the world places on women’s slender shoulders, and to allow yourself to get weird with it. And that’s exactly what these girls did.  

Girlboss is playing at The Gilded Balloon Teviot at 22:20 until the 14th of August