Pippa Evans: There Are No Guilty Pleasures

The fact that Pippa Evans believes there are no guilty pleasures would seem to indicate she is unfamiliar with some of the more outré entertainments at the Fringe... But I digress.

Given that many of the standups who invade Edinburgh each year regard their easily-mocked audiences the same way a shark might view a school of obese tuna, the fact that Evans tells us we have nothing to be ashamed of is refreshing. She mines her own unfashionable proclivities for the purposes of self-deprecation, but never apologises for them, and believes we shouldn't either, no matter what our guilty pleasures may be. This lends a nice touch of emotional honesty to what otherwise might be a fairly predictable show.

As a practitioner of musical comedy, Evans is something of a rarity: she can actually sing. Unfortunately, this is often wasted on some middling material (two by-the-numbers parodies of country music and hipsters, in particular). Her more personal routines, which switch between giddy ebullience and ironic grimness with lightning-quick speed, usually make up for any tiresome lulls.

Another strong point of Evans' set is that she exhibits a bravery rare at the Fringe, in that she is prepared to poke fun at the British comedy establishment itself. It's a bold move for any UK-based comedian to declare they have no interest in appearing on a panel show, and hearing jokes about the omnipresent Jimmy Carr that are usually only told by dissatisfied TV wannabes is both unexpected and satisfying.