Roisin Conaty review

Roisin Conaty is going to be a big-name comedian one of these days, so this year is your chance to see her perform her first hour and say you were there when she started out. Although this is her first hour-long show, Conaty hasn't gone to massive efforts to create a whole complicated show based around achieving some world-spanning task or other. Instead she reveals that she has been asked by the nuns at her old school to give a talk to next year's school-leavers, and she dissects her life up till now for clues as to what she should talk about and why she may or may not be qualified to speak to young people. She is very honest about her own lack of what could traditionally be called achievement, pointing out that at 31 years of age she has just moved back in with her grandmother and the life skills she has collected over the years seem to amount to knowing some good ways to call in sick to a job, and that not everyone can wear a fringe.

Her enthusiasm and sheer likeability as a performer belie these claims, however. Conaty's experience with a variety of club nights and open spots shows in her easy interaction with the audience and her storytelling. She's not really telling jokes, she's just chatting to you about a thing that happened on a bus, or an incident in an office, or a failed chat-up attempt at a party, but she tells these stories so well that you don't even notice the hour go by until she is, well, singing an inspirational power ballad. But you need to hear that for yourself.

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