Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Micky Overman’s at a crossroads-in-life point. In a six-year relationship, she’s starting to face questions about marriage and, of course, kids, that she’d previously been happy to avoid.

In a highly relatable hour, she wonders if she’s amassed enough anecdotes before settling into parenthood and the death of devilry. She’s slightly scared of commitment – even to an online yoga class, yet alone a possible husband – and has some concerns about her partner’s behaviour she needs to air.

Indeed, Hold On sometimes feels like she’s using stand-up to replay old arguments – whether it’s over her boyfriend’s inability to express love in the way she desires or about a friend’s pushy gift-giving – but this time with a script she can engineer. 

Despite her complaints about her other half’s love language or inability to find things for himself, there’s a feeling that things are going very well in their relationship and the pair can relax into a simple, low-maintenance life, if that’s what they want.

That’s perhaps at odds with a cynicism underpins some of the Dutch comic’s material – assuming, for example that  all weddings were ‘ironic’ until she attended her little sister’s and witnessed the loving sincerity, and having disdain for the expensive trinket that is a wedding ring.

Initially ascribing her fears about her future as standard millennial woman anxiety, it emerges that there’s more to this than first appears, and Overman tackles the almost mandatory mental health discussion with lightness. And ‘too much jazz’ is as good a euphemism for a breakdown as you might want.

Elsewhere, she challenges the British reluctance to talk about sex to share the experiences of trying for a baby, with all the rigour and discipline that requires. There’s also a fun and frank routine about a specific aspect of the aftermath of sex that’s not usually discussed – and there may be very good reason for that.

It’s a solid hour of observational comedy about the broad subjects of relationships and settling down, delivered with unfussy likability, but without hitting the same storytelling peaks and creative gags Overman achieved in last year’s impressive offering.

Review date: 25 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Tron)