If this really was a job appraisal for how Maisie Adam’s career was going, you’d have to assume she’d ace it. In just a few short years she’s become a favourite of all the big panel shows – Have I Got News For You, QI, Cats Does Countdown – and touring sizeable theatres, all before the age of 30.
The show is about reaching that landmark birthday, facing growing up, marriage (she tied the knot last year), the prospect of kids, and her friendship group getting settled into sensible, responsible jobs while she still pictures them as reckless party people.
Such is the fodder for countless comedians of her vintage, and, truth be told, on material alone, Adam doesn’t especially stand out. Appraisal doesn’t contain much of the self-analysis the title promises.
But it is her personality and delivery that make this evening so entertaining, with her presence full of verve and unaffected mateyness, still, apparently, genuinely excited to have the chance to be on stage to share her stories.
There’s often a jokingly incredulous ‘why does this shit happen to me’ tone, but with the situations sometimes fuelled with her occasional lapses in common sense, self-deprecation is key. She must be the only ‘hen’ to ever believe she was really in trouble with the police when the stripper showed up…
But she’s equally likely to mock the reactionary tendencies her parents have suddenly developed, the pretences of those who insist Hove is a separate place from Brighton, where she lives, or the pedantry of Swedish audiences. This is done with any (well, not much) superiority, more in the ego-free spirit of everyone being ridiculous in their own way.
Everything’s instantly relatable, from WhatApp groups to new mums sharing the weight of their babies, to the unappealing idea of using a coil as contraception. Adam has much fun extrapolating from her observations. The first couple of steps of comic exaggeration are usually predictable, but then she ramps it up.
Her funny bones and quick wit are evident from the first half, acting as her own support act with some effortless crowdwork, quickly assigning comic caricatures to audience members and conducting much banter. Although the biggest laughs come from her own misunderstandings, getting exasperated with one lawyer entirely because she didn’t know what a patent is.
She likes to play up the poshness of some of the crowd, while she’s a woman-of-the-people doing voiceovers to documentaries about Costco. That’s the sort of work a Yorkshire accent gets you…
Big holes in her knowledge didn’t stop her appearing in a forthcoming episode of Michael McIntyre's The Wheel, however, and she has a great anecdote about her humiliation on air that’s probably the best advert for tuning in the BBC show could hope for.
A co-star of that anecdote emerges for a pile-up of callbacks, the sort of ending that’s currently in vogue with comics despite its inelegance. However it’s infused with the same sense of carefree fun that buoys the whole show, cheerful if insubstantial, while burnishing Adam’s credentials as an appealing stage presence.
» Maisie Adam: Appraisal is on tour until March. Maisie Adam tour dates
