This is a one woman, small-scale comedy show that really works. Aided by a few interspersed pre-recorded videos; audition tapes, a Skype call from her mother and a guest appearance from a highly successful film director, it guns for an entertaining hour of comedy.
Danielle strikes an amiable, light-hearted tone with a lot of truth behind it. She finds the comedy in normal human behaviour with charming self-deprecation, and whilst there’s a fair few industry in-jokes, there’s not a hint of pretentiousness. It is a canny and well-judged tone of performance.
It isn’t heavy on the narrative, but character comedy and satisfying comedy songs and poems shape the show’s structure. Danielle portrays a diverse array of characters and offers a couple of moments of poignancy with comfort and ease. Danielle has put together a charming commentary on arguable flaws of the casting industry. She has a valid point. But it never veers towards the preachy or prescriptive. Nothing is shoved down your throat, save a courtesy shot of whisky (to be drunk when you’re given the queue). I think this is largely down to the humility and personal approach with which she tackles the material. Sure, it could’ve been slicker. But I wouldn’t have liked it as much if it was. It was rough around the edges and not trying to be anything else.
Not as a word of warning, more a notification, I wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s audience participation, but there is a dose of audience involvement. There’s nothing intimidating about it or singling out, its mainly mild flirting and being offered a drink. Neither, in my opinion, do any harm. In fact, I quite enjoyed it.
So, in review: Danielle’s funny without knowing it too much, smart without being wordy and confusing, sexy without using it and opinionated without being antagonistic. Bloody good fun.
