Coco the Time Travelling Tart is best known for their vertical-video skits on social media. They combine crude and camp humour with a genuine love of history and art, wrapped up in an outrageous persona. Their debut Edinburgh Fringe show does something rather challenging; it takes these short and funny snippets and turns them into an hour-long show. It only partially succeeds.
Coco is the drag persona of Max Norman, and it is very much a drag queen show. Coco is unrelenting outrageous. They are a horny person with the powers of time-travel and historical knowledge, and they use this ability to essentially be the ultimate party girl across time and space. The plot (such as it is) involves a missing pearl earring and Napoleon Bonaparte. You can see the plot coming a mile off, it doesn’t matter as that is not the point. It is all deeply silly and rather fun. Norman’s stage presence is strong, and they quickly charm the crowd, though this is a show that you have to decide if you’re ‘in’ or not. There is some heavy audience participation, and if camp, queer and cheeky humour is not your thing, do not go to this show.
Expect a lot of jokes about body parts, and for audience members to be asked personal questions in a silly sort of way. Don’t expect any historical insight, but do expect to have the odd belly laugh or two.
This is a strong debut, and Max has created a really fun and interesting character, and we hope to see Coco return to the fringe. But this show also felt very crude at points, from the humour itself (which always went for a cheap laugh), to the pacing and storytelling. There is so much potential here, but the lack of polish and stamina made it feel a lot less than its potential. Coco (and Max) are ones to watch.
