The British comedy actor and writer Arabella Weir who made her name in The Fast Show performed recently at a local theatre and I went along with a few friends as this lady makes me chuckle.  Arabella Weir gave a talk, read extracts from her three novels and held a Q & A session, whilst being her usual irreverent funny self.

Arabella Weir talked about her favourite comics (which included Paul Whitehouse), her childhood, her semi- autobiographical third novel The Real Me is Thin, and spoke about her views on body image, motherhood and of the rash of celebrity magazines (I don’t think she was a fan).  Arabella said she’d talent spotted the comic Miranda Hart and is a big fan of hers (as I am and I’d definitely recommend this comedy sitcom- Miranda previously aired on BBC2 in December 2009).

One of the memorable quotes from the show came as Arabella recounted a memory of a conversation between herself and her mother when she was a young child:  Arabella had received a piece of chocolate from a relative and had exclaimed out loud, “I love chocolate!” to which her mother had replied, “Well chocolate doesn’t love you!”  It seems Arabella’s sometimes critical mother played a part in the development of her humour!

During the show, Arabella Weir had a certain physicality of humour, bordering on the slapstick, with her facial expressions and movements keeping the audience laughing.  The audience perhaps not unsurprisingly seemed to be predominately female, with everyone enjoying the entertainment.    

I left the show smiling and happy.  You can regularly see Arabella Weir on Grumpy Old Women (BBC2) and her next novel The Real Me is Thin is due to be released in September 2010- keep an eye out for it on the bookshelves.