If you were to choose just two words to describe Irish comedienne Maeve Higgins, you could find none better than these: deliciously awkward.

They’re not my words (my friend Dave deserves the credit for that) but they perfectly encapsulate the feeling, style and humour of Higgins. [More]
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

There’s a rudimentary set on stage, not all that common for standup: small rug, table, model house, porcelain pussycat and a vase of flowers.  Enter the star …

Higgins has really put some effort into her solo comedy hour.  Her use of ingenious props and visual aids are not merely a crutch to compensate for any lack of material; rather it augments her insatiably mercurial wit just nicely.

Beginning by explaining what a punchline is for the uninitiated, Higgins has more than a few insidiously acerbic slights up her sleeve.  Yet her demeanour is by and large friendly, gentle and unassuming, and she’s brought pictures of her pussycat to show us. 

Girlish charm lends a deceptive sense of bashful innocence to Maeve’s character, when in reality she’s got us right where she wants throughout her delightful expositions on working in a hidden camera show, celebrity obsession (to the point of knowing Britney Spears better than she knows herself) and dubious dietary strategies.

Due to my maternal lineage, I’m personally chuffed when Maeve has a throwaway dig at Swiss people – the first I’ve ever heard, having long felt left out of being exploited in racial stereotype humour.  She cracks on a number of obligatory victims, but is hardest on herself, albeit indirectly much of the time.

The sweltering sauna that is a full Basement Theatre was slightly distracting, especially after Higgins points it out herself.  Her eyes – she apologises for their lack of symmetry (I found it hard to tell myself) – are forever rolling sideways, possibly distracted by her ‘inner critic’ which she claims berates and terrorises her in a voice like Shirley Valentine’s grumpy husband.

The fairly elaborate finale, relaying her favourite fantasies about what would happen if she unexpectedly met her ex-lover, runs welcomely overtime.
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

As we enter Bats, I’m struck by the wide age range of the audience and the number of Irish accents. The otherwise empty stage contains a table sporting a dolls’ house, a vase of silk flowers (with water in it) and a china Bambi figurine; a bentwood chair and a suitcase. Intriguing.

When Maeve Higgins appears, it takes me a minute to understand more than the odd word, but once I tune into her accent, I started laughing and don’t stop until the end. She looks lovely and takes great pains to describe her preparations with us, from the lipgloss (joke flavoured) to following her Gran’s advice to always wear a glittery brooch so that if the audience got bored they had something nice to look at.

So much information in a one hour show – and some very sound advice, such as the importance of only having good photos, just in case you get kidnapped and they put your photo on the news. The modern day equivalent of wearing clean underwear, perhaps? 

I always thought this kind of humour was more a female thing but the loudest laughing in the audience is definitely male. We all of us can relate to having a mum who brags about things that are not really that flash, the inscrutability of cats and the ridiculousness of taxidermy in natural museums.

There is so much I want to share but I don’t want to spoil it for you. This woman is funny to the bone – that famous Irish sense of the ridiculous comes through in the words, the intonation, the gestures and the timing. Her humour is from the heart and the whole audience leaves the show smiling and laughing and feeling that the world was a nice place after all.

Oh yes, and all the props turn out to have a purpose, except for Bambi.
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer