Fringereviews
ultimately alighting on a sex-positive icon that still comes with some troubling baggage. While ticking the box for an introductory hour of being an affecting account of self-discovery, ity about Demi Lardner. It’s as if she can speed herself up, slow herself down, warp herself before our eyes.
Tiny, with an elfin cuteness, she has a blonde pigtail on one side of her head and a badly shaved Mohican on the other. If I was her grandmother I’d despair – but the lopsided do means Lardner can switch from one character to another, simply by whipping her head around really fast.
Her subject, such as it is, is Australian Gothic. This is a one-woman sketch show, skipping from one weird snatch of dialogue to another, like an out of tune radio.
She constantly ambushes her audience, with exits, entrances, costume changes, pranks, bursts of recording and freaky hand-made cartoons. She’s spit-out-yourdrink funny, unrelentingly odd and more than a little bit witchy. At times it’s like watching The Exorcist.
She’s astonishingly good but this is distinctly secondary to the laughs Duker mischievously elicits from wouldbe white knight saviours and the po-faced woke. A cautionary tale for Meghan Markle, Venus features
CLAIRE SMITH
JAY RICHARDSON
oddly insubstantial – her reference points are other comics, rather than any observation drawn from real life. More than once, watching Lardner I’ve found myself thinking of other performers, other routines.
But if you like your comedy weird – and I do – Demi Lardner is a treat.
Until 26 August. Today 9:15pm. some exceptionally witty skewering of pop culture and screamingly hilarious insight into the full horrors of Stacey Dooley Syndrome.
Until 25 August. Today 12:10pm delightfully entertaining – if quite high maintainance – glam rock juggler called Idris, interactive musical comedy from Oz in the shape of Grant Buse and the utterly (and literally) enchanting Lucy Hopkins, who turns us all into golden people and then sings I Feel Love.
It all has a wonderful unpredictability about it, and a sense of being just acceptably frayed around the edges. The performers are enthusiastic, friendly, open-hearted and welcoming – even though the audience comprises just me and a truck-driver called George.
Shows like this are a reminder that you are in a place for experimentation and fun. There should be many more shows like this here in August. So far I have only found this one, so do try to get down and have a proper Fringey giggle.
KATE COPSTICK
Until 8 August. Today 6pm.