August 16, 2026
Bella Hull is a performer capable of quickly generating an impressive amount of energy in a room. As we were settling in, I’d worried that this midweek lunchtime audience seemed a bit sleepy, but by the time Hull had finished her off-stage self-introduction and marched onto the stage, they’d definitely all woken up.
Last year’s show was a punchy effort called Doctors Hate Me, and no one who saw that was surprised when Hull was announced as part of the SNL UK writing staff earlier this year. In that show, she lampooned her pale, chess-playing boyfriend before revealing that she’d actually broken up with him months ago, but there was no way she was throwing out good material!
Mad Cow Disease starts with a shocking life update and visual reveal (no spoilers) that I initially missed because for some reason the average head of audience members sitting in front of me this year has noticeably increased.
Later on, she shares with us that she’s always wanted to be poet, a thoughtful performer who reveals philosophical truths to a rapt audience, and there might even be a genuine disappointment that that’s not the sort of comic she turned out to be. Not that the audience today wishes for that – they’re lapping up dozens of very well-written jokes and an autobiographical structure that lands punch after punch.
Like last year’s shows, her comic technique is the epitomy of what Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle once described simply as ‘saying sentences that end with a surprise.’ Sometimes her sentences actually don’t transform into jokes until their final syllable, her intonation almost suggesting that she’s wrongfooted even herself. And it really works.
It’s a surprise then when the finale is a poignant one, and Hull seems to become genuinely emotional. We’ve come to rely on the cadence of her rug-pulling reversals, and I’m pretty sure this is misdirection, setting up a final gag. When that’s not the case, I’m not left disappointed but touched.
Bella Hull is a really special comedian, and if she keeps growing as she has the last few years, I reckon she’ll be remembered in years to come as one of the greats.
Bella Hull – Mad Cow Disease, Monkey Barrel 1 at 12.30pm
Sarah Stringer