Review by Steve Bennett

What you need in this comedy game is a gimmick. And for Ria Lina, being half-Philippine, half-German with an American accent clearly wasn't enough - she had to have a ukulele, too.

She's hardly George Formby - or if she is, she's one for the Internet porn generation, with his cheeky double entendres replaced by in-your-face, and very catchy, songs of mail-order brides and assorted sexual shenanigans.

It's very slickly done - there's no denying that the girl's got talent - but there are a couple of major flaws, too.

The first is that which affects a large number of musical acts - that the gags contained in the songs are often weak, and are shored up by the music. A so-so story about shagging your husband's brother isn't magically made funny by being told to the tune of She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain.

Lina's other drawback is that she presents a cold, distant persona that's hard to like, let alone love, and which make her gags sound like scripted lines she's learned by rote rather than a natural extension of her personality. She's a long way from mastering the art of making everything at least appear spontaneous.

At a relatively tender age, she has a lot in her favour - but there are some major obstacles yet to be overcome, too.

Review date: 1 Jul 2003
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett