Delivered with buckets of energy and enthusiasm, Felicity Ward’s new show is lively, facetious and a little erratic. Her performance style is so unerringly likeable that even the meanest of her frequent episodes of audience bullying feel warmly administered, sandwiching patronising words of encouragement about the audience’s attempts at laughter between self-deprecation and humility.
A killer punchline rounds off the show but it is Ward herself who makes it such an enjoyable performance.
Her tangential set centres around her tendencies as a controlling person and the disastrous consequences of listening to self-esteem apps. Her regular bouts of ad-libbing are skilful and controlled but the set itself feels at points a little too digressive, rambling and sometimes losing the audience’s attention.
An especially hilarious section sees Ward enacting a daytime television reality makeover show, complete with deep southern accents and a presenter called Campari. Her darker jokes are also extremely funny, as is the way in which she coaxes the audience through them, worried the change of tone my frighten them off. Slightly less effective are the many call backs towards the end of the show, which feel a little forced and unnecessary given the strength of most of the material.
A killer punchline rounds off the show but it is Ward herself who makes it such an enjoyable performance.
