TheHerald.co.uk – Beth Pearson
To be frank, I didn’t know Shelley Cooper was a post-operative trans-sexual and it is not immediately apparent. By some arbitrary amalgamation of her copper hair, voice as deep as Madge from Neighbours and Cooper’s beer, I thought she was just Australian. Cooper would, presumably, be glad of this fact: her opening line is about how we are judged or judge ourselves by a single attribute. For the girl in the front row, it may be that she is an actress.
For Cooper, it is trans-sexuality. She complains that the papers always prefix her name with “trans-sexual comedienne” or “post-operative transexual comedienne”, but then proceeds with a set in which everything is reduced to her trans-sexuality. The hypocrisy would be fine if it were funny, but it’s more often awkward and occasionally painful viewing.