Ava Vidal was first on my list for this years Fringe. After her breakout set on Michael Macintyres Comedy Roadshow, former prison officer Vidals reputation has grown swiftly, giving her a platform to make the leap from promising newcomer to established star of the comedy firmament. This is a challenge she spectacularly flunks, in a bewilderingly tentative and meandering show. Vidal recounts early on how she described her show to a friend: AIDS and Israel. Her friend counsels against such weighty themes, and it is advice that Vidal would have done well to have heeded. Tackling dark material requires a confident touch, and demands humour sharp enough to puncture the worthiness, but Vidals show veers between the mawkish and the dull. Vidal bases her hour on a failed relationship with Henry, the philandering Zionist. There are some good lines here, particularly on her reasons for declining a boat trip to Israel, and a new take on the burning bush, but the story wanders through a lament for her lost love life without ever giving us reason to care. Vidal has a tendency to throwaway punchlines: backed by a more confident set-up, this could be effective (as her Comedy Roadshow spot demonstrated), but here they are swallowed apologetically and are often almost inaudible. After an hour of such rambling material, one gets the sense that Vidal knows her show is weak. Not helped by a limp audience in one of the least atmospheric rooms on the Fringe circuit it feels a little like waiting for the dentist her performance lacks an energy and a confidence that would stir an audience to engage. Vidal undoubtedly has enormous talent but if she doesnt believe in herself, why should we?
