Zoe Lyons – Pop-up Comic, Assembly Rooms 5pm, until 25 Aug, £10/9
Vivid and natural, Zoe Lyons looked like she was having a blast in the Assembly Rooms Studio One, the chandeliers of which she compared to Pat Butcher’s earrings. This is just one of the many observations made by the comedian who injects a generous degree of theatre into the way in which she tells her anecdotes, with a fantastic fluid pace throughout the show.
She comments on the loneliness of her profession, the reason for the existence of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an unfortunate anorak incident and her TV appearances, which develops into a reflective analysis of the televised celebrity culture of today.
Lyons manages to weave her tales together faultlessly; an element of each succinct story finds it way into later stories in an unexpected and inventive manner.
She makes several very valid points too – just how are some hotels and leisure facilities getting away with providing ‘hand AND body wash’ receptacles? “That’s like me washing my underwear…in a dishwasher – they’re still clean, but it’s just not right.”
Her impression of a motion air freshener is priceless, and her final tale brings to a close a set that is thoroughly enjoyable and accomplished.
