Review by Steve Bennett

Rookie Sukan takes a brave, freeform approach to comedy – but often falls victim to the innate risks.

Instead of a well-prepared set, she spouts a breathless, mainly improvised, stream of consciousness set about Tupperware, dragons, toilet seats and pretty much anything else that comes into her head.

There’s obviously some method underlying her madness, but you’d be hard pressed to find it amid such a torrent of apparently disconnected diversions that share Ross Noble’s flimsy hold on reality, but come across more gabbled.

At worst it appears as if she’s desperately trying to find any hook on which to get laughs, now and again stumbling upon a flash of delightfully silly whimsy. Yet despite that inconsistency, or perhaps because of it, it is an almost hypnotic performance.

Her comedy won’t ever revolve around anything as obvious as a punchline, but will be found in tiny nuances, fractional pauses and broken rhythms, which she doesn’t yet find by instinct. Only perseverance and stage time will teach her where these laughs might be, but once she cracks it she will have a style of her own.

Review date: 14 Apr 2005
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett