Time: 5pm
Capacity: 70 or so, half full.
The theme: Joanna Neary's Magic Hole, this year's name for the usual fare: Neary gets out the dressing up box and frolics about in a series of comic caricatures. Monologues from the 2004 Best Newcomer nominee include a presentation entitled sex toys on a budget, the diary of a boy-mad west country schoolgirl, and a dolphin reading a newspaper (which of course, rather brilliantly, is soaking wet).
High point: A superbly funny Delia Smith impression that made me wonder why the first lady of cookery has not been lampooned more often. Neary also seems to be getting a little zanier, which I declare to be a good thing. It was her zaniest bits, such as Heston Blumenthal or Bjork singing about the housing market, that were the funniest. But neither has she lost her Ricky Gervais-like knack for noting human detail, like the hanging "So …" on the end of nervous people's sentences. Her energy and facility with voices, at the very least, would be enough to entertain almost anyone for an hour.
Weak spot: Though she has never lacked charm or talent, it is still difficult to find an obvious role for Neary in stand-up comedy. Whimsical monologues are all very well, but are they anybody's favourite form of entertainment? Another thing is the script – and it surely is a script, rather than material. The gags are often good, but seldom much more. Funny lines come along regularly enough, but so do duffers. In between, it sometimes feels as if the rest of the dialogue is there as padding to give her voices a bit more time in the spotlight. It is a mixed hour, in other words, that would have been better as 40 minutes - not that comics on the Fringe ever have that choice.
Audience participation: One old gent got the lucky task of fastening Neary's costume for the final number. "This is the first time I've done up a dress in years," she reported him to have said.
Comic equation: 1/2 Catherine Tate + 1/2 Alan Bennett
Mark out of 10: 6.5. Am I allowed halves?
Put this on your poster: The woman of a thousand wigs!
