Comedy review: Phoebe Walsh: I'll Have What She's Having

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Flighty and angsty, Phoebe Walsh delivers a memorably energetic debut, even if her performance can seem as disjointed as her quest for a more comprehensible life.

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

***

Mixing stand-up and sketch, this former member of the Oyster Eyes group is a perky, expressive spirit, leaping into routines with commitment before bouncing into something else, bold in the jumping, restless when she arrives.

Two preoccupations recur in the show. One is her bisexuality, modishly flaunted as an alternative to the “twee” conformity of hetero-normativity, even as it causes her plenty of the same issues as more conventional couplings. The other is her relationship with her divorced parents, her father in particular depicted as self-centred and in his own bubble, perhaps confirming Walsh’s inversely expressed fear that she takes after him. Self-aware about her failings and hypocrisies, she nevertheless tends to favour a glib, superficial exploration of them, fighting shy of too much emotional depth and misattributing a Groucho Marx quote to Woody Allen. Though mercurial and elusive, Walsh’s puckish desire to bring you under her spell does have its impactful moments, with a nightclub scene brought convincingly to life, from joyful abandon to sad consolation as the lights come up.

Until 27 August. Today 9:30pm..