Five years ago, Sara Pascoe and John Robins made standup shows about their breakup – both were good, but it was Robins’ that stuck in the mind, and won the Edinburgh comedy award. Why? Because, miserable though it otherwise is, being dumped makes for a more compelling story than doing the dumping. And so it proves again here, as Catherine Bohart – another casualty of a comedians’ romance gone south – turns her heartbreak into very engaging comedy.
Compounding the anguish for Bohart was the backdrop of pandemic and lockdown against which she had to repair her wounded sense of self. This Isn’t for You tells the story of the Irishwoman’s journey from smug coupledom (the pair co-hosted a podcast about love and romance) via breakup and through a year of social isolation, in which her OCD spiked and her friends assailed her with terrible advice on emotional recovery.
