Stéphanie Morin-Robert: SOFT SPOT, Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo supplied.

Stéphanie Morin-Robert: SOFT SPOT (Stage 17, Grindstone Comedy Theatre and Bistro)

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

There is nothing timid or easily classifiable about this complex, boundary-testing comedy from the fearless, and very funny, Stéphanie Morin-Robert.

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The soft spot in question is a bruise. And as we know from Blindside and Eye Candy, she’s the kind of artist who isn’t afraid to squint at the bruise (with her one eye), laugh at it with us — and press it till it hurts and we gasp.

There are two intertwined stories at play in Soft Spot, one starring Morin-Robert’s party-hearty great grandpa, and one starring her own chaotic cross-border entry into the world of motherhood. So, it’s a genealogy of sorts, hung on a sort of karaoke framework. Partly it’s stand-up hilarity, of a particularly vivid sort. Morin-Robert, who lost one-eye to a childhood cancer and freely pops the glass one in and out, has a way with memorable stories about being at an ocularist conference in Texas (“like Burning Man” for people who make glass eyes for a living). We sing along, with gusto, to “now I’ve got you in my sights with these hungry eyes….”

Morin-Robert has evidently not seen a commonplace of propriety much less a taboo — sex, birth in its most visceral details, religion, parenthood — she could resist a comic tangle with. And there’s something about the delivery — her relaxed charm, her endearing confessional manner, the occasional eye roll, a sense that we’re sharing confidences and insights — that makes it all so engaging.

This is a show with a gut punch. And the audacity of it is the full weight she gives to comedy en route. I gather that this isn’t the final version of this audacious show; we the Fringe audience are there for us to test it with her (an exciting use of the festival). And I wonder if the shocking revelations about Grandpa, and heartfelt reflections on a toxic family inheritance don’t come just a bit late, in a show that is, quite literally, all about uncovering layers. But the ending has huge impact. This might be the bravest show at the Fringe. And it’s got to be one of the funniest.