Winning rave reviews for your show at the Edinburgh Fringe is surely satisfying but there’s one place a show called Made in Penge has to be performed.

Carly Smallman will bring her acclaimed show home to the Bridge House Theatre in Penge High Street on June 27.

The easy-going 29-year-old comedian said: “I kind of named it because at the time of writing the show I didn’t know what it was going to be about so I called it Made in Penge.


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“People loved it – people came to see the show at the Edinburgh Festival last year just because they were from Penge.

“I kept making jokes at the fringe that I should have done this show in Penge. So now I’m doing it in Penge, which is brilliant.”

While the show is named after her home town, that’s not what it’s about. While she was preparing to take the show to last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Carly appeared on an ITV2 show called Viral Tap.

Carly said: “From the minute this show aired I was getting pretty much constant online abuse from people saying I was really fat and ugly and disgusting and how could someone like me be on TV.

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“It was just really relentless, really awful. I lost all my confidence.

“That was in the spring time – May/June – and the show needed to be finished by August.

“I decided to change the show because I felt so strongly about what was happening to me and people shouldn’t have to go through that.”

What Carly produced an upbeat and funny show that got great reviews and audience reaction and was typical of her warm personality.

She said: “It is a positive show. I’m not standing on stage for an hour saying ‘oh my god, I’m so fat and ugly’. It’s exactly the opposite.

“I’m proud that I wrote it. I can safely say with this show I genuinely don’t care what anybody thinks about it because it is a positive, empowering show that will hopefully make people feel good about themselves and the way they look.”

Carly grew up in Penge and has stayed local, currently living in Beckenham.

She said: “I love Beckenham, it’s very posh, but it’s no Penge.

"I know people think Penge is a complete s**thole and people look down on it because it has got Lidl and Shoe Zone and that stuff but when you’re from somewhere you’re always really proud of it.

“It’s like when someone insults your mum – you can insult your mum because it’s your mum but no-one else can insult your mum. I feel like that about Penge.”

Carly Smallman’s Made in Penge is at the Bridge House Theatre in Penge on June 27. Go to bhtheatre.com