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★★★★
Comedian Lianna Holston, a recent finalist of the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year competition, performed her solo show ‘Haha, Oh God.’ for one night only at London’s Museum of Comedy this week. Unlike other gigs which are usually prepared months in advance, Lianna came up with the set in approximately 3 weeks, spurred on by the need to secure performance reviews for her visa application for staying in the UK.
Describing herself as ‘apologetically American’ and the set as ‘a solo standup show for governmental reasons’, the material sees her share dating experiences, hilarious stories from previous jobs, the realities of being a female comedian and more within an hour of stage time. I was fortunate enough to be one of the lucky reviewers invited to see ‘Haha, Oh God.’ and Lianna certainly has charismatic stage presence; with her set featuring lots of infectious personality and boundless humour.
Naturally amusing comedy
At the start, Lianna gets straight to the point, informing the audience of why she is here doing this last minute show. Even though this is in the online description, it makes for a constant theme throughout the performance, with Lianna frequently saying “please let me stay” every time she says something slightly bold or outrageous. The comedian openly admits that she has had roughly 20 days to create the show and it is this level of honesty which underlies the whole performance and keeps the material so naturally funny. The set is chaotic, but in the best way, with the audience getting to experience an hour of Lianna’s unrivalled wit. It is a jam-packed hour of comedy, which always circles back to the visa situation and her complex relationship with her homeland, keeping a consistent theme and focus. As an aside, it is remarkable how well put together the material is for such a short amount of creation time!
Audience interaction elements
Lianna’s approach to audience interaction is incomparable. Even though there were clearly people that she knew in attendance, I was impressed by how much she engaged the audience and made the comedy gig personal. From highlighting how awkward it must of been for her work colleagues to hear about some of her dating endeavours to poking fun at some of the audience’s suggestions in an animal segment (by far the most random part), it made the whole show feel like an evening with Lianna, with the audience free to contribute and respond.
Overall thoughts
In places ‘Haha, Oh God.’ is slightly too borderline for my taste, with a couple of sections laced with too many innuendos and a few shocking statements, but overall Lianna has created a hilarious 60 minutes of comedy. I look forward to following her comedy journey, as she is definitely a voice to watch out for. To find out where Lianna will be performing next, head over to her website for a calendar of upcoming gigs.
Thanks for reading my blog today.
Love Kat xxx
*My ticket for ‘Lianna Toulston: Haha, Oh God.’ was gifted in exchange for an unbiased review.
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