“I’ll have what she’s having.”
As movie quotes go this is one of the most
enduring. In the scene Harry boasts how he made a bedroom conquest meow like a
cat. Unconvinced, Sally challenges him by asking, ‘How do you know?” Harry is
just sure. He knows an orgasm when he hears one. Like a great vocal coach,
he can make any vagina sing; have any woman hit the high notes. Sally, played by Meg Ryan, demonstrates that what a man might hear and what a woman may feel may be entirely different things. In the Deli booth she guides
her student through a tutorial titled, ‘Faking It: Sexual Politeness / Or How To
Deceive A Dunderhead.’ In way of introduction she murmurs through bitten lip.
Then, she moves onto the main body via tousled hair and bitten lip. Finally,
her writhes and wails culminate in ovation proving
that women truly are the best actors. When a passing waiter asks an
elderly patron what she’ll be having, the timing is mercurial, hitting my comedy G-spot.
From start to finish, When Harry Met Sally is a masterclass in screenwriting. As a female writer Ephron had to fight to the
top (early in her career she led a lawsuit against Newsweek for its discriminatory employment practices); despite this
Ephron was always destined for big things. Her mother and father were
scriptwriters for stage and screen, meaning the young Ephron had dialogue in
her blood. At the time of the film’s inception, Ephron was recovering from the
break up of her second marriage; now back on the New York single scene she had
a window into both worlds. Aware that marriage wasn’t a bed of roses yet attune
to the pressure women felt to lie in it is a paradox Ephron grapples with. Director Rob Reiner too - the inspiration behind the Billy Crystal
character - wanted to look at the hard truths of love, given he was a recent divorcee. With
all of this heartache it’s perhaps surprising that When Harry Met Sally manages to be a paean to marriage.
The optimistic note of the movie is struck when we’re introduced to a real-life
elderly couple, documenting to an interviewer when they first met. Although
Harry and Sally remain on screen for the duration of the story, these real-life
couples rotate, allowing the viewer to eavesdrop on these intimate stories. Juxtaposing
the fictitious tension of the warring pair with the non-fiction ease
of octogenarians illustrates how the fire of love changes over time: what was
once hot and risky is displaced by something warm and comforting.
If you’re uninitiated to the charms of When …, the story centres on the eponymous:
Harry, a self-assured wise-cracker, and Sally, a focused pedant. Both are
sharing a car journey to New York following the culmination of their university
education. On the journey they discuss love, sex and everything in between.
Neither appears to be the others cup of coffee, but the sparks of conflict
suggest neither can ignore the other. Whatever which ways, the two alight in
New York with no plans to reconnect.
Of course they do though.
Five years later, Sally is kissing her
boyfriend goodbye at Departures when Harry notices … Joe. Life has passed. One
night five years ago doesn’t mean much to him. He can’t put a name to Sally’s
face. After exchanging pleasantries with Joe, Harry’s memory wipe leaves Sally
feeling sour. On the flight Harry has a chance to make amends, as who should be sitting in front of him but Sally. Again, the two resume their battle of
the sexes with Harry theorising that men and women can never be friends, as sex
will always come between them. Certain that evolution has missed Harry, Sally
is relieved when the two part ways – Harry, presumably, to his cave.
Five years later and the two meet in a
bookstore (“there’s someone staring at you in personal growth”). This time the
exchange between the two is benign, more mature; more collaborative, less challenging. Age has smoothed Sally’s seriousness; time has softened Harry’s
dogma. Life has changed for the two of them. Harry’s marriage has broken down
and Sally’s relationship has ended. Both see themselves as losers in the game
of love. United in consolation, they become friends, helping the other rebuild
and negotiate dating. Their friendship mirrors Reiner and Ephron's, illustrating
how it is possible for men and women to collaborate without putting their body
parts into one another. The film is witty and incredibly touching.
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| Carrie Fisher plays Sally's friend. |
I watched When Harry Met Sally on Valentine’s with the woman I would like to
write my life-story with. She hadn’t seen the film before and she enjoyed it so much
she managed to keep her eyes open for the duration of it. If The Girl was a
film reviewer, this is how films would be scored: eyes open throughout – a must see; asleep for the ending – pretty gripping; intermittent eyes shutting – passable; asleep for the duration – avoid!
One show that The Girl couldn’t keep her
eyes open for, that she really should have, was the brilliant What Would Beyonce Do? Released onto BBC
iPlayer on Valentine’s Day, Luisa Omielan’s debut stand-up show is cut from the
same cloth as Ephron’s. It is wise; it is sexual; it says something about the
genders and it’s a fucking hoot.
I’ve wanted to see Omielan’s show for quite
a while. Ostensibly, it isn’t aimed at me. What is striking when you watch
Omielan’s show is how she’s appealed to a different demographic to most stand-ups.
Normally comedy shows are the preserve of couples or fanboy geeks: they’re
rarely frequented by young, single ladies. Fortunately, over the last few years
this has begun to change. Because of Norah Ephron’s legacy begetting the likes
of Lena Dunham, there is now a thirst for female voices. Omielan hasn’t had the
column inches of Dunham, but what she has achieved is no less impressive.
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| Omielan |
Five years ago, the bootylicious bottom had
fallen out of Omielan’s life. Having enjoyed success at The University of
Salford (alumni includes Peter Kay and Jason Manford) she subsequently found
herself stuck in a rut. The achievements of her degree combined with the risk
of taking comedy courses in Chicago had failed to pay dividends. Her life was
in the black, signalled further by her retreat to home after the break-up of a relationship. Omielan knew she was talented, but in the cutthroat
business of show it felt like her dreams had been bloodlet. What would Beyoncé do? she thought.
Would Beyoncé forgo her dreams? Would she sacrifice what she held dear to
the malevolent whims of the showbiz God? Or when life gave her lemons, would
she make lemonade?
Like a true underdog story, Omielan fought
back. She invested all the money she had in taking her What Would Beyonce Do? show to Edinburgh. Word soon got around that
the girl was onto something special. Like a Royal in Hawaii, she was soon garlanded by a mass of praise. From the embers of a dying career, Omielan’s name
was now spreading like wild fire around the industry. Since then, the show has
returned to Edinburgh these past four years, playing to bigger venues, to more
people. Her follow up show running concurrently Am I Right Ladies? has been a huge smash, demonstrating that like
her idol, Omielan is no one hit wonder.
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| It isn't free to go to anymore. |
The show filmed in Clapham Grand captures
what has made Omielan a word-of-mouth sensation. The inclusive atmosphere is
highlighted from the get-go with the performer volunteering a fan to be her
hype man. Omielan coaches the unsuspecting woman on the art of an
introduction. This isn’t from the humiliation school of audience participation,
but the ‘I share my star’ college of collaboration. Omielan then hits the stage
to Beyonce’s Crazy In Love, gyrating
like no ones watching. The preface is shared, documenting how the title came to
Bey. What follows is Omielan’s life-story, punctuated by Beyonce tunes and dance
routines. Like Ephron, this marriage of story and inspiration works
beautifully, enhancing the art through the artifice.
This isn’t just a young woman riding on the
back of her hero. The lyrics of heartbreak Omielan shares are every bit as
emotional as her hero – funnier too. Luisa has an excellent line in comic
metaphor: one routine has her describing a young woman’s first foray into
romance. She lays out her premise by declaring that every person starts in the
ocean of life; initially, we’re too frightened to move from our parents: the
waves are too big, how could we ride them on our own. Then, we meet someone who
makes the water feel less tumultuous. It isn’t long before we start searching
for something even more stable, say a relationSHIP. The analogy continues
taking in the rough waters of love and the hearts eventual drowning.
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| In full swing. |
Another wonderful routine is on mental health.
Within it, she holds society morally culpable for exacerbating its effects.
Mental health in comedy is de rigueur, yet in 2012 when the show was first
conceived it wasn’t. Omielan argues that we spend hundreds of pounds working on
our physical health whilst ignoring our mental well-being. Hilariously, she then
imagines a mental health gym where people work on their ex-boyfriend issues,
before building up to working on their daddy ones. This is incredibly smart
stand-up being packaged into a pop concert night out.
In all honesty it has taken television too
long to cotton on to Omielan’s star. In an interview on Stuart Goldsmith’s Comedian’s Comedian Podcast, the
comedian admitted her frustration at this. For me, it doesn’t make sense that
this genuine voice of a generation has had to crowdsource money for the live
recording of Am I Right Ladies? Further in a
recent interview, she insisted that of the £100,000 in ticket sales she
generated at Edinburgh, she only saw 10 per cent of it. Somehow Omielan is
still an underground star; hopefully now with the BBC on production she’ll be
the sound of 2017.
When Harry Met Sally is available on all good DVD shelves. What Would Beyonce Do? is on iPlayer.
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