August 6, 2024 
Corr Blimey
Making her yearly return to the Fringe, Pam Ford’s one-woman biographical show is filled to the brim with honest Australian charm. Detailing stories of her childhood flicking between Birmingham and Melbourne, it is clear from the onset that the power of Ford’s joie de vivre is what fuels her whole performance; echoing the clients she used to have as a hairdresser, Pam’s light-hearted pragmatism becomes a testament to her past and her wider, hard-learned promise to “have a wonderful life.”Travelling halfway across the world for a tenner in the 1970s, Ford’s story is a testament to a time no longer conceivable to the modern imagination. That doesn’t stop her, though. Every moment carefully constructs an impression of her and her family’s wilful approach to creating a life for themselves in a foreign country, even if it comes with obstacles, dealing with xenophobia, bullying, and hormones; the comedy shines when Ford is at her most relatable. The moments her comedy falls short, however, is when she points out ironies in countries mainly foreign to her audience, which, although funny in their own right, there are points which drag for too long, diminishing their initial comic effect.I can safely say that starting Fringe 2024 with this show felt right. The Free Fringe, in particular, is a risky game, but Ford’s show triumphs in its genre; her story tells itself with a conversational informality that is too organic for anywhere but a small room under City Café. Needless to say, I didn’t enter her show expecting to find a heartwarming core, but her final note on finding belonging across the continents epitomises the spirit of our festival. Even if Pam’s sense of humour felt unrooted at times, it is clear that she doesn’t; in a world where the concept of ancestral roots has proven messier than we once thought, stories like hers emerge as excellent reminders of embracing the chaos. Click Here For Review