Katie Hill
Howell’s energy is infectious, she bounds onto the stage and maintains this exuberance for the entirety of her set. For a mere few moments, I wonder if this ‘never-take-a-breath’ energy feels performative or over-rehearsed but quickly it becomes the best thing about her. Early on in her set, Howells tells us of her recent autism diagnosis. The tales that follow inform a long-standing gag of, “how the heck did it take them 31 (?) years to diagnose me?”. It’s easy to gather that Howells is a story-teller, her comedy works best when reciting specific and niche memories, I’ve mentioned some highlights below, but for now, La Soupco.
A purple notebook dictates the structure of Howells’ set, and it contains the short yet riveting tale of La Soupco. To summarise, it’s a show about love, nautical trauma and buying Impulse for your mother from the shop. The latter Howells admits to being a downfall of an otherwise gut-punching story. The segments of La Soupco are met with a lighting state change and a telenovela esc soundtrack - Howells regularly interjects her own story to reveal their inspiration or provide herself segues to some hilarious anecdotes. The nautical trauma is real for Howells, after a near-death drowning incident she justifiably “HATES THE SEA”, - I’ve put that in capitals because she quite literally shouts it and it's unfathomably funny. As mentioned, it’s the specificity that really gets us, there’s one tale about Howell’s unfortunate involvement in the vicious politics of High school netball that is coloured with the kind of minute and absurd details that propel you forward in your seat.
To my outrage, Act II of La Soupco ends abruptly and Howells reveals her 11-year self gave up her inevitable journey to sweeping the Oscars. Never fear, Howells has written the third act herself, and it’s a clever choice - Howells calls back to the best gags and ends with a rousing acapella one-woman rendition (with full body commitment!) of the confrontation scene between Javert and Jean Valjean in Les Misérables - I’m not explaining this one, you just have to be there.
Now I am going to hazard a guess that this crowd was full of other eager neurodivergents, a lot of the laughter feels brought on by a collective, ‘oh, I do that!’. I love to hear that in a comedy space, I love looking through the audience as friends turn to each other and mouth, ‘me!’ It brings home the ever-relevant point that representation is important, especially when it elicits joy! That’s not to say all neurodivergents share one mind of thought, not all autistic people like trains! Except Howells does, and so does her mum, and dad (I also like trains).
Now, I know I am going back somewhat on my comment about Howells not allowing many breaths in her comedy. The vast majority of the time this is exactly why we love her, but the occasional pause to let her biggest laughs settle wouldn’t go amiss.
Howells wins me over with her passion for being passionate about things others might not be passionate about, you’ll have to trust me on that one. She’s got herself a fan, La Soupco is on at BATS Theatre until the 13th of May and tickets are available from the Comedy Festival website.