Catherine Bohart: Borrowing Trouble at Soho Theatre
Some comedians make you laugh, but the best do so while talking about the truths we rarely address. Catherine Bohart, in her new show, does both.
The Irish stand-up has been on a UK tour stopping in London at Soho Theatre between September and October 3rd, 2026, and she is scheduled to return to Soho Theatre Walthamstow on February 19, 2027. The show, Borrowing Trouble, is about her birthright of all-encompassing, generational worry. The title comes from a phrase her father uses for irrational thoughts, if you will. It is an ideal subject for a comic as sharp as Bohart, and she makes the most of it for a full hour in which nobody in the room stops laughing.
Her humour is everything you want from a comedian: dry, quick, warm and a little wicked. She has a dark streak that works perfectly, because it is always pointed at herself first. She is happy to giggle at her own expense, but she never makes it awkward. You are chuckling with her, never wincing for her, and that takes real skill.
The show also goes into serious territory, and this is where it becomes more than a funny night out. Bohart talks about relationships. She discusses mental health, drawing on her own experience of OCD. She also reflects on how she has been treated in the entertainment industry, as a woman and as someone living with mental health challenges, and about how she has grown through all of it. None of it comes across as heavy or preachy. Comedy is the vehicle, but the result is also empowering and relatable, the kind of material that makes people in the audience feel less alone with their own struggles.
The worry at the heart of the show has a real source. Bohart grew up in Dublin, and her father was training to be a priest when he met her mother. In a recent podcast interview, she explains how the name of the show comes from a phrase her father uses to say she’s constantly worrying about things that may never happen. That Catholic Irish upbringing explains a lot about her comic voice and is clearly special to her. It is a household where anxiety, as she puts it, is practically an Irish inheritance considering the history of the nation, and she has turned that inheritance into a very funny hour.
What makes the show land is how openly she talks about her own life. In the same interview, she discussed living with OCD, the challenges of turning your personal life into stand-up routines, and the emotional aftermath that can come with sharing so much of yourself on stage. You can sense that awareness in the room. She is generous with her material but in control of it, and it is a good reminder that the ease on stage is built on a lot of craft.
Her crowd work is a masterclass in balance. She interacts with the audience without ever pressuring anyone to take part, and she connects the room's responses back into her stories, so the whole theatre feels part of what is happening on stage. Her comments on everything are quick, smart and consistently funny, while never making the audience nervous about participation.
Soho Theatre suits her perfectly. Its rooms are not small, but they are intimate, which makes for a better atmosphere than a big arena. You feel close to the performer, the laughter fills the room, and the whole evening becomes a shared night out.
Bohart is an established name, but this show presents a comedian at her most confident and most personal. She is clever, honest and endlessly watchable, and she never loses the room.
I left looking forward to seeing more of her work, and I would recommend a ticket to anyone who likes their comedy sharp, Irish and, secretly, a bit moving.
Edited by Emily Bunder, London Editor
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