Edinburgh Fringe: Luisa Omielan - Politics for Bitches, Gilded Balloon, comedy review: emotional take on the state's failures

Omielan gets political in a funny, relatable show with a moving finale

The comic explores the personal pain of bad political decisions

Despite the title of her new show, Luisa Omielan says she doesn't do politics – apparently it took her ages to figure out that there's no difference between a Tory and a Conservative. Discussion of politics, she says, is like a penis being shoved unwanted towards her face first thing in the morning, and she has to keep finding ways of batting it aside. But why doesn't she give it a go, just this once? Here, then, is what she's learned.

From the start, we're very much in the same ballpark as Omielan's hit shows What Would Beyoncé Do? and Am I Right Ladies?: proper big night out affairs with relatable observational material and an easy audience rapport. With her dog Bernie at her feet and a flipboard alongside her, the London-based standup batters through facts and figures she's picked up especially for the show; her naivete may be fabricated to an extent, but it adds to the sense of unreality fostered by a number of statistics. “I know, mate!” she comments in response to one stunned gasp, as she ploughs through material about the ratio of private-to-state-school backgrounds of our prime ministers, and – of particular importance to the show's climax – the precise amount each Government department spends (welfare and the NHS are not the greatest).

As we reach the latter part of the show, the comedy recedes and the passion really kicks in. Omielan's mother became sick and died this year. The comic feels deeply let down by the NHS, and by extension the state, over the handling of her mother's diagnosis and treatment. It's hard to make any of this funny and she doesn't attempt to; nevertheless, the audience are on their feet by the end. This is satire informed by the visceral, personal pain of bad political decisions, and there's no way it can help but move.

Until 26 August; tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/luisa-omielan-politics-for-bitches