Maisie Adam at Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh review: The hair is fun, the live performance is way funnier
There is going to come a point in Maisie Adam’s career when she has to make the momentous decision to grow her hair back. To TV viewers who have enjoyed her on panel shows and Live at the Apollo she is the comic with the unusual hair. Long at the front, shaved at the rear. The hair is fun, but her live performance is way funnier.
Adam’s new show includes an explanation of the haircut – it was done to relieve lockdown tedium – for her expanding following, drawn to her universal relatability. Adam is a rare stand-up who is both innately traditional and also very contemporary. She is still in her twenties and a relative newcomer yet has an instinctive, cheerful confidence that instantly puts everyone at ease.
Buzzed – the title comes from the fact that she has plenty to be buzzed about right now – does not break any artistic boundaries, it is simply a succession of brilliantly observed dispatches from her life. She recently got engaged and there’s a wonderfully witty routine about her boyfriend’s proposal involving a madcap dash to the right spot on a bridge in Prague so that he could get down on one knee just as the sun was setting.
Even when the stories seem superficially mundane a sharp turn of phrase or image makes them sparkle. Adam is not the first comedian to talk about Zoom gigs or Twitter trolls but she has a way of bringing something fresh to every topic. I particularly liked her description of a face that resembled “the wrinkly bit of your elbow”, which was worthy of Victoria Wood.
This is not cruel comedy. Nor is it particularly zeitgeisty, although there is plenty of subtext about inclusivity and diversity. Adam adds a modern spin to the stand-up template without ever sermonising. A story about appearing on a panel show where her male team captain kept getting her name wrong is never nasty. There is a dusting of feminism in her riff on the weirdness of wedding ceremonies and the strangeness of taking your husband’s surname though only a light dusting.
The stand-out stories could not be more timely in this post-Euros era. Adam is an enthusiastic football fan and player and reveals with unbridled glee how she joined a female team when she moved to Brighton and was quickly accepted. She also recalls appearing on Sky’s Soccer AM where much to her delight she outplayed the men during a kickabout. She is clearly a force to be reckoned with on the pitch as well as on the stage.
Until August 2; edfringe.com. At Leicester Square Theatre October 27 & 28, leicestersquaretheatre.com
