Review by Steve Bennett

Talk about ambitious. Lara A King has been performing comedy for exactly a year – having made her debut at the 2010 Brighton Fringe – and already she’s staging a solo one-woman show.

While her frequently generic material sometimes gives away that lack of experience, with her confident performance and smiley, likeable stage presence she has the demeanour of a seasoned pro. It’s the sort of natural charm that convinces an audience they are in safe hands, and they laugh generously… sometimes, indeed, a lot more generously than an impartial observer might think the more unexceptional lines deserve.

Routines revolve around trying to get a petrol pump to finish on a round number; unrealistic adverts for alcohol that ignore the messy truth; and how hair starts sprouting in appropriate places as you age – absolutely the sort of observations you’ve either heard before or figured out for yourself; even though she retells them fluidly and with good humour, and occasionally injects a nice line into the telling.

There’s something of a grinding gear change when she suddenly lurches from this discussion of universal experience into the sad reality of her grandmother’s Alzheimer’s, which could be handled better, especially since it’s merely a gateway into the first of a small batch of lightweight comic songs. She is a singer-songwriter in an alternative career – which goes some way to explaining that confidence – and this is clearly where King’s strengths lie. She’s got a strong impressive voice, and her naturally upbeat delivery style is only emphasised by the musical accompaniment.

The music leads into the poetry section – or, as she puts it, songs she hasn’t got round to writing melodies for yet. In truth, they are standalone verses, and there’s a touch of John Hegley in the way the best of them evoke forced or unexpected rhymes to make a punchline. And they are none the worse for that.

Then it’s back to stand-up to close the set with an extended routine about supermarket self-service checkouts – and how short the gap has been between the technology’s introduction and it becoming a hack topic. It’s an overlong recreation of the process, getting laughs of recognition for every ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ type reference. Given how well she can present such unimaginative material as this – imagine what she could do when she really comes into her own as a writer. Though that clearly takes more than a year…

Review date: 13 May 2011
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Brighton Caroline of Brunswick