Angela Barnes: Come As You Are - review

Affably chatty and refreshingly honest, Angela Barnes is a salt of the earth type character. From her chronic sleepwalking to her reputation as the messy flatmate, her New Zealand debut kicks off with light-hearted warmth and a smattering of laughs. But there’s really only so long you can listen to tales of social mishaps before you start wonder if the show was ever going to surmount to something more than just your typical boilerplate of stand-up comedy.

Around 20 minutes in is when the set finally shifts gears, moving on from a middling entrée to something with a bit more meat to chew on. General comic levity on daily frivolities makes way for a charming and hilarious look at Barnes’ personal account of self-acceptance. She dissects with great perception what people really mean by ‘ugly’, while at the same time, joking that she’s miraculously hit the jackpot with her sporty and attractive long-term boyfriend. Now in her thirties and confident in her own skin, Barnes shares her comic wisdom to an audience full of reaffirming nods and roaring guffaws on her intimate yet relatable search for identity, albeit belatedly.

Come As You Are, 3-7 May, The Classic Studio, Book Tickets.