Ever feared a family reunion? How about a family reunion where you must face your second cousin who you hooked with at the last reunion? Oh yeah, and the last family reunion was your grandpa’s Shiva. This is the premise of Sophie Sucks Face, Sophie Zucker’s one woman show. A surprisingly relatable piece, it tackles commitment issues, self-sabotage, and adulthood anxieties, packaged comically as a story about incest. Written by a perceptive comedian who is also a seasoned and bold performer, Zucker is a triple threat in her Fringe debut.
Commanding the stage from the moment she enters until the curtain closes, Zucker is dazzling in the role of her alter ego. For an hour, Zucker completely embodies an amped up version of that hilarious and messy cousin you meet every couple of years at your family gatherings. In a venue as small as The Underbelly there is no room for mistakes, but Zucker doesn’t falter for a moment. Even when interacting with the audience, Zucker is always completely and hilariously in character. Although Sophie Sucks Face is mainly a comedic show, Zucker also delivers moments of heartfelt earnestness, displaying her range as a fearless performer.
Compliments also extend to her musical ability, with unwavering vocals throughout the performance. Not only are the lyrics being funny (expected from a comedian of Zucker’s caliber, the youngest writer on The Daily Show), the songs are catchy, and their contradictorily cheerful tone makes their delivery as humorously offbeat as their content.
The only thing as crazy as hooking up with your second cousin at your grandad’s funeral is Zucker herself. The character who she has created is totally conceited one moment and then curiously thoughtful the next: never one note. Around her character’s fiasco Zucker weaves in references to Succession, Zooey Deschanel and her ukulele, musings on cancel culture, and jokes about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Sophie Sucks Face showcases Sophie Zucker a talented writer and performer in equal measure, promising that there is more to come from her yet.
Sophie Sucks Face was on at Underbelly: Bristo Square – Dexter.
Image provided to The Student as press material.