The Cock Whisperer

THE EDMONTON SUN 5/5

2011-08-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Pardon the pun, but The Cockwhisperer -- A Love Story has a happy ending.

Colette Kendall (Tippi Seagram’s Happy Hour, Who’s Afraid of Tippi Seagram?) embarks on a new style of theatre in her Bildungsroman from her repressed 12-year-old self finding prophylactics in her parents room to a stellar Canadian history buff teenager itching for sex to a having a loving, healthy relationship with the male appendage.

The masterful storyteller brings a laugh a line from the get go, until she masters a dramatic mood change. Tales of her dysfunctional marriage are easy to laugh along with until she decides to be serious. Then you feel you've been punched in the face. Yet hers is a story too many can relate to -- losing yourself for the sake of making a relationship work.

Her storytelling is self-deprecating, honest, painful and hilarious all over the course of the hour.

Whether she's lampooning sex-ed classes in the 1970s, or jumping back into her 15-year-old skin and doing the Hustle she's fearless in the delivery of her monologue. She explains to the younger festival-goers in the crowd that her discovery of sex pre-dated the Internet. Her sources of information were health class and schoolyard rumour.

She knows how to play to an audience, shining a light on the people watching and takes a walk through the theatre.

Penises are a popular topic at the Fringe, but this story is much more about the discovery of her own sexuality and emotional well-being.

In spite of the traumatic journey that lead her to the point, she has a good grip on her subject even if this work is a departure from her usual performance, although she keeps to her "no minors" subject matter.

Oh, and the X on her program she's left to dispose of your gum gets a whole lot funnier in the middle of the show.

Catherine Griwkowsky

THE EDMONTON JOURNAL 4/5

2011-08-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Let us cross our fingers and briefly adjust the rules for what is printable in newspapers, for this play is hardly about roosters. “The penis,” Colette Kendall notes, “is notorious for being bad-mannered around the female visage.” She then pokes and rolls a rubber substitute about her face in ways hilarious and haunting.

The Cockwhisperer is a sort of inverse Vagina Monologues, down to moments of extreme seriousness which handsome Kendall is wise enough to poke fun of immediately. “Who here loves cock?” she yells cheerfully, then adds how her mother would be so proud of her right now. Ha!

The play is in the form of a three-relationship testimonial, which Kendall freely admits she invented...Her nostalgia becomes strangely universal, mixing the ’70s and ’80s, and there is no cheaper way to see a pretty 48-year-old grunting and grabbing her crotch in feigned heat this side of the river. We can practically smell her convincing ache... And all this she manages with wit and without tabloid tackiness.

GLOBAL EDMONTON 4/5

2011-08-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

The saucily titled The Cockwhisperer-A Love story from Colette Kendall who bares all her insecurities and experiences in her search for love and other things. It always amazes me how an artist can get up on stage and bare his or her soul and Colette does that in spades. Very Funny, Very Moving.

THE VUE EDMONTON 4/5

2011-08-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

“You guys laughed too much,” complained Colette Kendall, after the applause had died down. The audience’s boisterous hoots and snorts made Kendall’s show run into overtime, forcing her to rush through the poignant moral of the otherwise saucily timed cock-tale. Though it starts as a series of dick-in-mouth witticisms, it promptly develops into a women’s quest to navigate relationships via the penis. She quickly learned as a young girl that “sexual knowledge and virtue was going to be a slippery slope.” It’s a slope that eventually leads to an unexpectedly dark place that shakes the audience to silence. Both funny and striking, among the dick jokes, The Cockwhisperer is truly a story about what it means to love.
Kathleen Bell

Review Vancouver

2009-09-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

Perennial Vancouver Fringe favourite Colette Kendall is back for a third time with a new, edgy, flat-out funny monologue. Gone are Tippi Seagram’s blonde wig and half-filled martini glass, but don’t worry Fringers, if you lusted after that alluring cougar you will love Ms Kendall’s new show, The Cock Whiperer: A Love Story.

More Comedy Club than Fringe theatre, Kendall runs the gambit on a subject that is evidentially near and dear to her – penises! It’s hardly likely you will take it to the office water cooler and it’s a little too broad for prime time “Comedy Hour.” But this comedian is HOT – in more ways than one; seeing her showing off her best side to Van McCoy’s seventies cool trash disco anthem “Do the Hustle” was worth standing in line for.

This Hamilton housewife and mother to three has a unique comic-theatrical delivery that pushes the limits of taste without being offensive – although, she won’t spare your blushes.

© 2009 John Jane

The Georgia Straight Review

2009-09-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Colette Kendall isn’t a drag queen anymore—at least not on this Fringe tour. In previous years, Kendall has appeared as her bewigged, martini-swilling alter ego, Tippi Seagram. This time around, the Ontario mom’s performance is more naked, metaphorically speaking. In The Cockwhisperer’s mix of standup and stories, she still speaks audaciously about sex...but she also talks about the darkness of being sexually dominated. Tippi’s great, but Colette without the wig is more compelling—and funnier—because she cuts deeper.
Colin Thomas

The Calgary Herald Review

2009-08-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

Canadian Voices
Fringe Review: The C--kwhisperer--A Love Story
Four stars/5 stars

Written & Performed by Colette Kendall
Review by Stephen Hunt

There are props, and then there are Colette Kendall's props.
I won't say what it is, but let's just say it relates directly to the title of her smart, funny, one-woman show, which explores Kendall's search for love and penises.
Standing at centre stage, dressed in a simple, elegant black cocktail dress, Kendall looks like she could be any old upper-middle class Yuppie corporate woman. Except she's standing there telling 100 perfect strangers the story of the first time she saw a penis other than her brother's.
It belonged to her first real boyfriend, a tall, blonde heartbreaker, and her story of him and his penis is a funny, touching monologue about adolescent sexual angst that ends not only badly, but itchily.
The middle penis of the night belongs to her first husband. That's a little less touching and a little more terrifying.
The final penis belongs to the man she left her husband for, John, who--alas--was her husband's best friend.

In between monologues, Kendall verbally spars with members of the audience in a good-natured way, and regales us with C--k Facts.
Kendall, who has played previous Calgary Fringes doing her one-person shows about Tippy Seagram, is a solid writer and strong performer. With the C--kwhisperer--A Love Story, she has found a wonderful connecting thread with which to tell the story of the main men in her life.

4 Stars/5 Winnipeg Sun

2009-07-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

Men beware, this play might offend your tender Victorian senses!
The powerful coming-of-age story of Colette Kendall is an austere expose of growing up as a young, protestant, naive-but-burgeoning woman in the late 1970s and an emerging love of, well, you know.
This one-woman show is honest, revealing and will have you laughing from the moment the lights dim to the moment you leave. But don’t be fooled; it's not all fun and games. Serious moments are interwoven to create a well-rounded and empowered performance.
One warning to anyone who likes to sit in the front row: Kendall will interact with you, which is hilarious if you’re in the mood.
From the creator of the Canadian Comedy Award-nominated Tippi Seagram’s Happy Hour and Who’s Afraid of Tippi Seagram?, Kendall delivers a show that will make you laugh from the bottom of your belly with her unforgettable stories.

Vancouver Fringe Awards The Cockwhisperer- A Love Story

2009-07-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

The Nasty Award: The Cockwhisperer: A Love Story
Colette Kendall accepts her anatomically correct prize! (All Awards Night photos by Brice Ferre)

Yes, there actually were other contenders, but the Cockwhisperer perfectly fulfilled the criteria of the show you’d least like your grandmother to see. Thanks to Colette Kendall for being the gracious recipient of this fun award!

Thank you to all our 68 performing companies for contributing to an extremely rich and diverse year of theatre! Awards are just one way of celebrating. We’re proud to say that every day of the Fringe was a celebration of theatre and the artists who create and perform it!

2009 Canadian Tour Dates

2008-12-09T06:05:00.000-08:00

London Fringe Festival June 18-28
Winnipeg Fringe Festival July 15-26
Calgary Fringe Festival July 31-Aug 9
Vancouver Fringe Festival Sept 9-20