Lucy Beaumont: We Can Twerk It Out

In Lucy Beaumont’s debut Fringe gig, we are transported from Edinburgh to the Walton Street Working Mens Club in Hull. There are no smarmy middle-class observations on luxury lattes here; instead, we get a cosy hour of ditzy comedy from the northern lass, with countless stories about her hometown.

After winning the BBC New Comedy Award and Chortle Best Newcomer, Beaumont shows all the promise of a new star on the circuit. Her material centres on her strong “east curst” accent that was both a point of ridicule and regard when she tried to move down to London (on four separate occasions, she hastens to add). Now living in Surrey, she unpicks the difference between suburban decorum and Yorkshire candour. It’s everywoman comedy full of truths and half-truths, packed with some killer one-liners along the way.

Unfortunately however, not all of the material quite comes off, and Beaumont often relies on her adorable, bubbly persona to see her across the finish line. Often, the story opener (“and there was another time, right”) is actually funnier than the pay off. She blurts out questions to the audience to the point where it’s unclear if she’s being rhetorical. Still, much of her material is timed to perfection, with a warmth that is hard not to immediately fall in love with. As a result, we let her off the hook every time, as if staring into by big, puppy-dog eyes.