Sara Schaefer: self-aware liberal

Sara Schaefer has a successful career as a TV writer in the US. She won two Emmies for her blogging for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (strange for a television awards show, I know). The one-time MTV talkshow host makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut with an hour-long stand up show called Little White Box. It’s a reference to a bizarre nursery rhyme about putting Jesus into the titular box.

The bespectacled comedienne speaks with a calm drawl, which explodes into unexpected moments of intense energy for comedic effect. The show has all the Trump-bashing you’d expect from a proud liberal, but Schaefer’s best material derives from her personal life. She delves into her religious childhood on the Bible Belt, and talks in detail about experiencing night terrors and her mother’s death. There are also some great critiques of liberal-left politics in the US, like the shaming culture on the internet, and an especially funny routine about her attempt to boycott Hobby Lobby for its stance on birth control.

When she moves away from the cheap Trump jokes, which are omnipresent at this year’s Fringe, Schaefer shows herself to be a wonderful storyteller.

Christian Butler is a spiked columnist. Follow him on Twitter: @CPAButler

Sara Schaefer: Little White Box is at the Pleasance Courtyard until 28 August.