Review: Anna Piper Scott: None Of That Queer Stuff at The Pleasure Garden

Anna Piper Scott: None Of That Queer Stuff at The Gold Digger at The Pleasure Garden
Saturday, February 17, 2024

As a proudly polyamorous autistic ADHD trans lesbian, Anna Piper Scott is many things, but ‘boring’ is not one of them.

Returning from a recent tour at the Edinburgh Fringe, Anna is back after a successful run at last year’s Fringe World with her show, Anna Piper Scott: Such an Inspiration. Arriving with her characteristic wit, excellent fashion sense, and arsenal of laugh-out-loud anecdotes, facts, worldly observation and important history lessons, Piper Scott’s newest show, None Of That Queer Stuff, was a rousing success.

One thing that can be said about Piper Scott’s style of comedy is that no one is left behind or left out. Her easy and genuine style of audience interaction transcends the confines of the spiegeltent stage. This means spending time before the gig warmly welcoming punters in and asking about their days, their lives and their outfits, and hanging back afterwards to decompress and hear the stories of people who connected with hers. Before the show begins, audience members are at ease, and Piper Scott’s painstaking creation of a space that feels safe, exciting and human is an asset to her charisma and genuine investment in her crowds.

Despite the sardonic promise of “none of that queer stuff” in the show’s title, the show is, of course, largely based around stories of queer joy, queer identity, and, at moments, queer struggle. Yet, as Anna consistently reiterated, the show was also deliberately written for individuals who don’t identify as queer. The intention to offer everyone an opportunity to experience, witness, or partake in queer joy and the invitation to ‘live queerly’ despite one’s identity as queer or otherwise strongly grounded the show in a wholesome and inclusive atmosphere that celebrated people living their best, most honest lives.

Over the course of the hour-long show, Piper Scott unwove a story that, while initially appearing as a simple generic ponderance—a cliché in the comedic genre—began to blossom and become complex in its retelling. Throughout the piece, audience members adventured through hilarious comedic side quests (or artistic tangents) about Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Roman history lessons, bisexuality, train obsessions, and birthday badges. Despite the illusion of a slightly scattered storyteller, easily distracted by audience interaction and more than willing to tangent, Piper Scott was so perfectly in control of her narrative, delivering the final comedic blow to absolute audience surprise and satisfaction.

Anna Piper Scott is a woman at the top of her comedic game, as was undeniably proven in her latest Fringe success, None Of That Queer Stuff. This show is for everyone—queer people, straight people, people with no clue where they fit—and a genuinely enjoyable piece of laugh-out-loud, cockle-warming comedy that perfectly embodied the ‘Fringe spirit’ with its boldness, its authenticity, and its pure joyfulness.

BEC WELDON