Gig review by Steve Bennett at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival

You’ll have already spotted the name-based pun in the title InappROPERiate, but a more accurate one might be Lucy Roperrrrr, as this is an agonisingly hesitant hour, full of apologetic verbal mumbles that doesn’t inspire any confidence in her abilities. A fear not without justification.

She seems to be running before she can walk, struggling to fill even a 30-minute slot, with random scraps of what could be generously described as stand-up. She sees a store in her home town of Matlock, for instance, that is both a pet shop and an electrical retailer – and although this is clearly an odd partnership, she does nothing but tell us the fact and show us its sign.

Despite the title, there’s no theme of being inappropriate – not that theme matters, but nothing in its stead, either. A bit of  self-deprecation about her childhood teachers-pet achievements, a few sad moments about her break-up and a predictable bit about dick pics to name but three,none of which is memorable. It seems as if any half-baked idea this shy performer has ever had has been thrown into the mix to reach for the hour, but little is built into a strong gag.

The exceptions are her poems – which are a bit Tim Key-like, as is predominant in comedy these days – but these taut, amusing, neatly delivered snippets that shine like beacons amid the fug of weak material that surrounds them.

It seems a bit rich for her to be down on popular observational comedians, joining in the fashionable genre-bashing, when her own talents are so very underdeveloped. She’s in severe need of more gigs, more writing and more sense of purpose about what she’s doing.

Review date: 21 Feb 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett