Kristen Schaal has won numerous awards in the States for her stand-up, but her show is aptly titled, as she is currently little-known over here. This doesn’t stop her winning the crowd over immediately in this set at the Assembly, with her combination of geeky innocence and a very surreal and somewhat wrong sense of humour.
The hour features such characters as Schaal’s comedy partner, an alcoholic absentee budgie; Winston Churchill, who features in a disturbing erotic dream; a depressed caterpillar; and Schaal’s boyfriend, in a hilarious scene where Schaal asks him to marry her. This joke becomes a brilliantly awkward scenario, showing Schaal to be a very good actress: this means she can amusingly satirise serious theatre, such as the excerpt from Schaal’s 4 ½ hour-life of Ann Boleyn, and her mental baggage-laden conversation with a pan and spoon!
The only weak point is a five-minute pre-recorded sequence – the budgie’s TV debut – which, while funny, feels like a cop-out as part of a live show. Other than this, the set is an excellent example of intelligent, charming and weird stand-up, never straying too far into surreal or disturbing territory to lose the audience or the comic momentum.
4/5
Steve Howard
