Review: GRACE CAMPBELL: A SHOW ABOUT ME(N), Gilded Balloon Teviot

Kicking off her show by declaring her intent to silence men, Grace Campbell goes on to explain her near obsession with them, a subject which would come to define the entire show.

Campbell further clarifies that as a child (of Labour PR man Alistair Campbell) growing up in the early 2000s, the media surrounding her essentially painted finding a boyfriend as the ultimate goal in life. Campbell dives from this straight into one of her favourite movies as a kid, A Cinderella Story, a film in which Hilary Duff finds a boyfriend and therefore is swiftly over the death of her father.

From here on Campbell takes us through the life of a fun, loud, bubbly north London Girl, detailing the escapades of her upbringing and the adventures of her 20s. Within this Campbell discuses her biggest icks in men, mental health issues and growing up with a war criminal dad.

All of Campbell's jokes get her a laugh but her biggest issue comes in the form of her storytelling. It is not that she is a bad storyteller but more than some of her bits on stage can feel fairly long, especially in the middle section of the show. The end result is always laughter but it does feel as though the gap between punchline to punchline does grow longer.

However, with that said being said it cannot be denied that Campbell's delivery of a punchline and her personality work wonders on stage. She comes across as someone that anyone could talk to and have a great conversation with. This is a quality that Campbell makes the most of, using it to her advantage for some truly hilarious crowd work.

A particular highlight is asking if there are any football lads in the audience to no reaction before then forgetting a football stadium's name, causing for a previously silent football lad to shout out the answer, tricking them into not only into revealing themselves but also into falling into the trap that she doesn't know the name.

It is this natural likeability that allows the audience to feel at ease that makes Campbell's show work as well. The atmosphere feels lighter and it allows Campbell to discuss subjects such as sex, politics and mental health with a touch of levity.

The show itself can occasionally feel like there is very little structure and more Campbell riffing with the audience and discussing random stories from her life but come the end of the show Campbell cleverly ties everything up neatly, creating a throughline for the rest of the show and a brilliant payoff that gets her her biggest laugh of the night.

Grace Campbell: A Show About Me(n) could use with some tightening up but overall it is clear that Campbell is a talented comedian and one who makes each show worth your while.

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