Mae Martin gave an enchanting performance. She played cute and adorable, disclosing personal titbits of information about her awkward adolescence and recent move to the UK. Her songs were funny and endearing, including my personal favourite about the zombie apocalypse being a really good excuse to take revenge on a lazy housemate. She was excellent when marrying pop culture with confessional, observational comedy. There were recollections of former camp counsellors, primary school teachers and ‘tight bun’ hairstyles. Martin’s wonky impressions of Julia Roberts and the photocopied Don Cheadle hand outs were pitched just right.
It was a hot and humid room, and one audience member had a choking fit, but Martin handled it skilfully, showing her ability to react well under pressure. The audience enjoyed the show, and even though the heat caused it to finished ten minutes early, there was a really good atmosphere following the performance.
One thing that threw me – just a little ¬– was her stance. The entire show, whenever she wasn’t playing her guitar, she had one leg up on a chair which bothered me for some reason. It drew the eye to the artificiality of the performance, breaking the illusion of an intimate conversation which the rest of her act effected effortlessly. I think that off note was enough to rescue the set from being twee. That, and all the ‘fuck’s.