THE BEAT MAGAZINE

  /  4
 

“This is a cock!” declared Colette Kendall as she was holding a mighty dildo ready to play the plastic penis like it was an origami. Kendall gives us a courteous warning that a hefty dildo comes with trepidations just before she begins telling her stories and cock facts in the Cockwhisperer: A Love Story. I felt like I was sitting in one of the Western lecture halls and learning about the History of Cock Knowledge.
Living in an era of HBO TV-shows, sex exhibitions, and online porn sites, you might think, what else she can offer to me that I have not seen so far? Well, you have to admit that this line of thought would make you extremely naïve as we live in an age that the exigencies of life requires constant stimulation every minute. The Cockwhisperer: A Love Story is more than a compilation of jokes and observations of her past encounters with penis(es) since her sexually aware years in the ’70s. It is also about how diverse people can relate to the same story in different ways.

Yes, it is correct that the lack of information regarding sex education in the ’70s would result in creating funny and/or painful stories about one’s first sexual encounter; however, I believe that this show is timeless. Even though we live in an information era, I am pretty sure that there are copious amount of people out there who can relate to her awkward experiences and maturing examinations. If not, why would we still watch reality TV shows about so-called virgins?

Kendall is a competent and a courageous performer who delivers her lines so genuinely that she brings a forthright commitment to her role as a Cockwhisperer. She certainly has got some balls! There were plenty of comedians out there who mock the genitals and bodily orifices but Kendall is very witty, shrewd and authentic about how she utilizes this masculine organ. It is the most promising subject for satire and comedy after all…especially from a woman’s perspective.

The show’s notable weakness is probably its strength: it is too short. I cannot remember a show where an hour went by so fast and I was left with a profound disappointment like a child who sees a treat wafted away from her. Is there not anymore of this? Why not? It was one of the best shows I have seen so far and I highly recommend everybody to go and see it.
One last warning is that the show is extremely hilarious but do not expect to get excessively frisky afterwards.

R. B. Akgol is a freelance writer/researcher and an enthusiastic historian who has a passionate interest in gender and sexuality.

Laugh Out Loud Funny!

Submitted by Jo-Anne Bishop Sat, 06/09/2012 - 09:34

There is a reason Colette Kendall, writer and performer of “The Cockwhisperer – A Love Story”, is nominated once again this year for a Canadian Comedy Award. She is damned funny!
A hilariously honest and touching tale of one woman’s journey into sex and sexuality, The Cockwhisperer is an absolute must see at this year’s London Fringe Festival, or any Fringe Festival for that matter.
Laugh out loud funny, you will be in hysterics from the moment Kendall sets foot on stage. A personal and affecting tale provides a “sad trombone” moment near the end but it is short lived, and Colette quickly drags you back into a fit of belly laughter once again.
Put your delicate sensibilities aside and get past the title, because this show should not be missed.
This opening weekend review has been posted on behalf of Theatre in London.ca.

THE EDMONTON SUN 5/5

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

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

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

“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

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

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