Ana Falcon: “#1 Mexican in Estonia”

Ana Falcon brings #1 Mexican in Estonia, her first solo show and a powerful feat of storytelling and stand-up, to the Tallinn Fringe this year. The show took place at Ratas&Kohv and opened with a set from fellow Pussy Jam comedian Sille-Kadri Simer. With the thwap of an unfurled fan, Simer explored her connections to Spanish speakers, mixing crowd work with personal experiences before introducing the night’s main act.

Falcon entered the space with a burst of color and sound, beginning with a dance number that wove through the surprised audience and across the stage, before ending up behind the mic. With hilarious reluctance from Simer, she introduced the audience to a traditional ritual to kick off her first performance. With that energy in place, Falcon tore through a tightly-paced examination of her obsession with being in first place, threaded with themes including family, representation, acceptance, and the oppressive weight of striving for perfection.

A deliberate, meticulous storyteller, Falcon models what comedy can look like when identity is not a punchline or a source of division, but a perspective from which we view the same life experiences — the specific in the universal. By reclaiming the stage for artists in indigenous clothing, and providing us with the historical and personal context for doing so, she welcomes us into her worldview, which is both comedic and relatable.

Perhaps I’m a victim of the modern malaise of a short attention span, but I appreciate a performer who mixes up style, tone, and delivery. Falcon held the room’s attention through tales of scheming revenge with her nanny to an unexpected song number that was more Don Bluth than Disney but underlined Falcon’s message for the show and her life from childhood onward. Falcon’s thematic storytelling is an immense strength, and her ability to redirect attention before calling back to earlier topics shows deft attention to narrative. That intentionality allowed her to showcase her range as a comedian, from crowd work to physical comedy and props, overt wordplay to subtly drawn parallels, without dropping the energy or coming across as half-baked. 

One of the strongest themes to emerge was family, which we all experience differently whether we grew up as neighbors or met as immigrants. Through that difference, Falcon shares stories that may seem absurd at first glance, but demonstrate an almost radical sense of acceptance by shifting the punchlines away from the things that make us distinct, focusing her wit instead on the systems we inhabit, and our shared efforts to reach the top while living there.

Ana Falcon is a regular on the Tallinn comedy scene and a prolific contributor to the festival outside of her solo show, which has its final performance on Tuesday 17 September at Ratas&Kohv. Simer’s solo show in Estonian, Tourist Trapped vol. 2: Over the Edge has wrapped its run for this year’s Fringe. The Pussy Jam birthday event is Friday 13 September at HUNGR. Tallinn Fringe continues until 18 September.

Author: Laurie