Ayoade Bamgboye’s debut is pure brilliance: with playful authority, she keeps her audience so enthralled that this packed hour of stand-up flies by. The show charts Bamgboye’s life spent between Nigeria and London, where British misery collides with her naturally sunny confidence – gained from a childhood being regarded by her family as a “special child” and named “crown of joy”. Bamgboye mines this contrast to excellent comic effect, inventively workshopping English idioms on a whiteboard, lightly roasting British audience-members, and setting a major plot-point in a Co-Op aisle. She’s a multi-talented comic: a skilled physical performer, reveling in every opportunity for crowd-work, weaving together stories involving grief and transformation with an extraordinary mix of deadpan wit and sparkling energy.

Pleasance Courtyard until 24 Aug
tw rating 5/5 | [Bizz Holmes]