Comedy review: Mae Day, Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88)

A TALENT to watch, 25-year-old Canadian émigré Mae Martin establishes an immediate rapport with the crowd, as she shares her insecurities about coolness, fitting into the UK and imminent apocalypse – a situation she principally attributes to her nemesis, US singer Kesha.

Star rating: * * *

An intermittently secure and despairing lesbian, with some deft lines concerning male curiosity about her physical arrangements and the tell-tale giveaway of Sapphic fiction penned by men, she was an intense, gawky teenager.

Obsessive crushes on her camp counsellor, school teacher and bizarrely, actor Don Cheadle, prompt soul-searching songs that rework Alanis Morrissette and 4 Non Blondes to fine effect. They are witty pastiches rather than simple lyric swaps that, crucially, don’t overplay her neurosis.

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She assumes too much familiarity in the audience with Harry Potter and the Robin Williams film Jumanji. But the reliance on fantasy is drolly amusing, as she bemoans her lack of an archetypal quest and miserable failure to be Jack Kerouac. Blessed with loopy, bright-eyed vim and likeability, Martin pulls off some sizeable non-sequiturs, but her ludicrous Julia Roberts impression would grace any show.

Until 26 August, Today, 4pm.

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