Comedy review: Daisy Earl: Scottish Comedian of the Year Winner 2015

Despite the reigning Scottish Comedian of the Year having an English accent, half-Scots Daisy Earl wears expectations about her debut lightly and has mustered an impressive 45 minutes of solid material in her relatively short stand-up career.

Star rating: ***

Venue: Scottish Comedy Festival @ The Beehive Inn (Venue 178)

An instinctively self-deprecating late-bloomer, with an appealing vulnerability but awakening steeliness, she reminds me of an emerging Sarah Millican, emboldened by her growing prowess on stage. Like her, she has an everyperson quality, reflected in bumbling ventures on to the dating scene, the malapropisms of her grandmother and her grumbles about having to lose weight.

For all that though, there’s an edge to some of her material, from her frankness about sex turning slapstick violent, to her admission of her mental health struggles, ranging from her parents’ awkward support to bleaker episodes when even Leith’s junkies take pity on her.

Her humiliating dabbles with character comedy reiterate her accident-prone nature and there’s a mortifying account of breaking an ankle on holiday. Lacking a thick skin, she doesn’t suffer optimists like her new doctor or personal trainer gladly, still less the men who slight her because of her size, slapping them down with sharp rejoinders.

Until 28 August. Tomorrow 6:50pm.

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