Review: Jordan Gray: Is it a Bird?

The superhero you never knew you needed

★★★★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
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Jordan Gray
Photo by Dylan Woodley
Published 22 Aug 2022

Jordan Gray is better than you. Her hair is better, her jokes are better, her piano skills – and I’ll bet a warm Fringe pint that her Jeff Goldblum impression knocks yours into the middle of next week. That she proclaims this in emotive song only makes her (you’ve got the gist) even goddamn better.

Is it a Bird? celebrates Gray’s superpowers as a tour-de-force talented transgender woman. Hang up your capes Marvel minions, this statuesque Goddess is here to save the day. Armed with comedy songs, very silly anecdotes, and looking like she’s just stepped off the side of a Grecian urn; she’s going to win your heart, cancel Hitler, and then tell you about the time she was misgendered by a (literal) horny dog.

Gray is a brilliant musician with a voice that jazzily moves from Tim Minchin to Cher with ease and pizazz. The woman has serious range in both pitch and subject matter. Balanced precariously on her keyboard’s flight case, she thumps out theological analysis of Jesus as a zombie-werewolf-vampire, and rails against scaremongering clickbait. It’s catchy, hilarious and always with a wink of knowing.

Her effervescent energy is pure Essex girl on a night out telling you a story with the theatrics of Fosse and the force of a runaway truck. There is a warmth and sincerity to Gray’s delivery, in particular her closing beat, that is sure to appeal across the board. Today she’s in a shipping container, but it can’t be long before this heroine achieves world domination.