Review by Lucy Holz
Sophie Duker is no stranger to TV, known for her success on Taskmaster, and appearances on pretty much every British panel show you can think of. She’s a veteran of Edinburgh Fringe, and this year her entire run is almost completely sold out.
The show begins with a whooping Duker running through the audience, waving her arms and being her own hype woman. The crowd goes wild for the energetic comedian and she does a fantastic job of setting the vibe for her hour in the spotlight.
This show is about delusion, or as Duker calls it ‘delulu’. This phrase sets the tone of the set as being delightfully millennial in every way. The hour is peppered with these cringe phrases so dearly beloved by millennials online, making the audience laugh and groan simultaneously.
Focusing on Duker’s self-confessed daddy issues, the show is loosely centered around her problematic relationship with her absent father. Impressively convincing him to do therapy with her, she walks us through her experiences dealing with separated parents who both have their… quirks.
Before the material officially begins, she asks for a volunteer from the small number of men who have come to see her by themselves. She settles on Jim, an American who completely steals the show. Every time he is called upon he’s ready, with touching one-liners, hilarious jokes and an impressive singing voice. Dubbing him ‘daddy Jim’ and referring to him as such throughout the night, he corrects her right in the final minute, rechristening himself as ‘gay daddy Jim’.
The show is heavy on the crowd work, with Duker picking specific people in the front row and constantly calling for responses and suggestions from her audience. This includes riskily asking for accent requests for her to attempt and at one point bizarrely asking the crowd to yell out compliments.
At one point after telling us about her interaction with a fake sugar daddy online, Duker breaks into a version of ‘the candy man’, changed to ‘the creepy man’. It’s not clear why a self-aware comedian who is not vocally gifted would choose to insert a song, but thankfully it’s the only musical addition to the show.
It’s an hour of high-energy comedy and will especially appeal to anyone who identifies as ‘delulu’.
Image Supplied