Review by Jay Richardson

Increasingly assured in her manic nerviness and childlike excitability, Harriet Kemsley has cemented her persona, channelling her gushing delivery and sporadic indiscreet blurts into that of a panicking bride-to-be. Careering towards a major life step, marriage, has coincided with her emergence as a more consistent comic.

Open about the fact that her relationship has endured its ups and downs, she stresses that she can more than match her newly teetotal fiancée for crazy behaviour, reinforcing her mother's impression that thank God these two troubled souls have found each other.

Although she's done her research into matrimony - statistical, historical and a field trip to a horribly gender-defined wedding fair - Kemsley doesn't pretend to be a dispassionate observer and occasionally allows her would-be princess side to overwhelm her. There's a pleasing contrast between the controlled intensity she projects on stage and the lack of almost any constraint off it.

Personifying her doubts about the union is her supposed friend Helen, whom she voices making feminist arguments about the institution and just generally being a sourpuss. This affords Kemsley an occasional wobble but usually gives her the chance to triumphantly throw such dubiousness back into potential naysayers' faces.

Though hardly the first to poke fun at the expense, rituals and ostentatiousness of weddings, Kemsley's sharing of her insecurities and the unpredictability of her betrothed gives these particular nuptials a heightened sense of risk.

The proposal moment – already drained of its romance by her hangover and unlikely choice of attire – is a case in point. Seemingly chosen for its potential for mortifying embarrassment, the timing prompts a suitably sniffy reaction from Helen. Yet Kemsley contrives an even more awkward, alternative scenario to resist her cynicism.

Endearingly unfiltered, whether acknowledging the ticking of her biological clock in the most forthright terms or flagging up sexism in the comedy industry, she's more coy about her beloved's identity [It's fellow comic Bobby Mair]. Still, there are some enjoyable allusions for anyone who saw her debut show last year, seen their online videos together, or may heard his side of the relationship in his stand-up.

There are abundant moments of whimsy but Kemsley can still surprise you with a moment of blunt, hard-edged bleakness. And for all that she's a force of personality, carrying you along on her effusive, trilling delivery, there are plenty of finely wrought, quirky lines to enjoy too.

With her exuberant, open manner, she has no difficulty persuading a volunteer on stage to share the heavily qualified vows she predicts sharing next year, a neat little set-piece that draws together all her fantasies and fears into a concise summary. Good luck to the best man speech that has to follow it.

Review date: 21 Aug 2016
Reviewed by: Jay Richardson
Reviewed at: Just The Tonic at The Caves