Nina Conti –
Complete and Utter Conti
Mick Perrin for Just for Laughs Live
Pleasance Courtyard @ 20:20, Aug 1-27 (not 8 or 15), (1hr), £9.50 (£8.00), £10.50 (£9.00)
***
The woman that made ventriloquism cool again (was it cool before?) brings her first full length show to Edinburgh with new characters and puppets. Of course the monkey is still the star of the show and is as rude and belligerent as ever.

She’s developed a style that entirely recognises what she’s actually doing and is equally content chatting to her hand as she is when there’s a puppet on it. Like before and probably as always, as her approach insists, her material is littered with the inevitable hand up the arse gags. Frankly there’s nothing wrong with a bit of fisting humour, but I can’t help wondering how many years she can work on the circuit before this becomes tiresome.

Nina still comes across as a relatively pure and gentle soul, leaving most of the base humour to Monk and displaying characteristic shock and embarrassment at the outpourings of her furry little friend. As far as the monkey material goes, she’s re-treading old ground and for anyone who’s seen her perform with Monk before, there will be a great deal of stuff you’ve already seen… word for word in fact.

The new material and new characters are reasonably hit and miss to be honest, it is taking her in interesting new directions, which is vitally important, but it doesn’t seem to have matured as yet and probably needed a little more work before launching into this full show. Altogether it feels like a bit of a random jumble, with many sections falling wide of the mark and getting close to losing the audience, making each following sketch work harder to regain the crowd. Thankfully the monkey’s frequent appearances throughout serve well to pull stray attentions back to the gig.

Altogether it’s a mixed bag, that shows broad scope and a great deal of potential. Unexpected highlights creep up on you through the sheer confusing unsystematic nature of it all. For example, moments when Conti channels her ventriloquist grandfather open up a fascinating sentimentality within the act that I simply wouldn’t have thought possible.

I would like to think that the elements toyed with here can go on to create a strong and expanding future for Nina Conti, but given the rigid form of her act up to this point, it is a leap of faith. Strong and successful new characters are integral but at the moment there is a growing risk of becoming a one trick pony.

by Ian Phillips

The National Student's
2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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