Amy Matthews: Definitions of Toast

Amy Matthews brings her show Definitions of Toast to The Gaffe Comedy Club on Wednesday 28 October. If you've come across her before, you might recognise her from Have I Got News For You, but this is a full hour of her own material rather than a guest spot on a panel.

Definitions of Toast is a personal one. Matthews builds the set around her first queer relationship and the joy of it, set against the backdrop of recovering from a string of alcoholic partners. It's that particular kind of comedy that comes from looking back at a run of bad decisions and finding the punchline in the wreckage. Alongside that, she works her way through a second thread: challenging herself to learn how to tap into her own anger. It's two things running in parallel — the new relationship and the old patterns — and the show finds the common ground between them.

It's the sort of set that works best when you can see the comedian working through the ideas in front of you, rather than just delivering a polished routine. The title Definitions of Toast points to that, too — the kind of thing that starts with a simple observation and ends up somewhere completely different. If you're into stand-up that's as much about the personal as it is about the jokes, this is exactly that.

It's a Wednesday night, so it's a mid-week one rather than a weekend slot. The Gaffe Comedy Club is in Bristol, and the show runs on Wednesday 28 October.