Review by Tony Frame. Venue 170. Laughing Horse @ The Counting House – The Lounge.

★★★★☆

Sasha Ellen takes the mic and starts by telling us that she could be mistaken for being a Primary School teacher due to her appearance and the way she is dressed: She’s wearing a dark-coloured lightweight cotton dress, with little flowers on it. Or even better, she tells us again – she could be mistaken for being a grown-up child actor. This is actually true (for some reason Haley Joel Osment popped into my mind then!), and it brings a bunch of laughs to the room, which is pretty full.

There’s a few latecomers who straggle in, and Sasha handles it like a pro by berating them (nicely) and making them part of her routine. Ha-ha-ha the audience laughs. She also tells us that the lights of the venue might trip at any given point and plunge us all into darkness. She proceeds to make some hilarious observations regarding this, which brings more laughs and hilarity. Within a couple of minutes she’s already warmed the room up like we’re rotisserie chickens in your local Asda, and she’s not even started her gig yet! What we are witnessing is a seasoned comic handling everything outside her control like it’s water off a duck’s back.

Her one hour show involves stories about an ex-boyfriend and using dating apps, watching serial killer documentaries and giving tips to single men about how they should decorate and furnish their flats, there’s also some funny bits about her bits, and trying to mount her Uber driver, the list is endless! No stone or subject is unturned here, despite it being mid-afternoon! The jokes and gags and quips and add-ons (if there was such a thing) keep coming, and coming, and for every one that misses, well, they’re quickly forgotten about by the two to three that hit the mark right after. Everyone is giggling and groaning with laughter.

When Sasha mentioned at the beginning of her show that she resembled a grown-up child actor (allow me to bring my Haley Joel Osment observation into your conciousness again), or a Primary School teacher, well, she was as right as rain in more ways than one with the latter, because she basically gave us all a one-hour lesson in comedy gold. Yes – comedy gold! The only disappointment was that those sixty minutes went insanely fast. I honestly think we (the audience) could have stayed all day and night to listen to her jest about pretty much anything. She holds your attention like a naughty CBeebies presenter let loose in the wild, and throws in punchlines without obviously telegraphing them. Her show is a par-excellence in the art of making people laugh.