Review by Julia Chamberlain

Words tumble out of Ever Mainard, she must breathe through her ears. Her fast-paced delivery reflects her racing, attention deficit disordered brain. 

After warming us up with some cracking gags about the American Olympic shooting team, she eases us into the deep south of Texas, her home territory, where emotions are no more welcome than homosexuality.  She’s extremely funny talking about her tight-lipped, unsympathetic mother and her hayseed relatives.  She is blisteringly matter-of-fact about the trash aspects of her family and friends and the school bullies of yesteryear. The character portraits are brutally hilarious.

It’s a mix of the personal – about broken relationships, the reward and punishment of post-breakup behaviour and pet custody – and more observational of life in West Hollywood, where everybody has at least two divergent jobs.  The set piece on personal training is particularly tickling.  

Her writing is solid and you do get swept along by her delivery, which includes her running commentary on how she’s doing, the interior monologue leaking out.  There’s not much variation in pitch or pace (nasal, fast or faster) but it works for long enough in this slightly less-than-full-length show.

This trip is her first time leaving the US, and is a creditable British debut. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that she will have bigger shows and tours here in a few years and she’d glide easily into the circuit for as long as she wanted with her gag-rich, honest approach.   

Review date: 20 Aug 2016
Reviewed by: Julia Chamberlain
Reviewed at: Gilded Balloon Teviot