"A definite step up from last year's hour and, by the sounds of things, the start of the run." Stevie Martin reviews The Freewheelin' Cariad Lloyd.
Cariad Lloyd is back after last year's nominated run with new and old characters in a show which, if she'd had her way, would be an important piece of theatre. As it turns out, the Pleasance put her under "comedy" and are stringently monitoring both her poignancy and seriousness levels.
Kicking off with excerpts from what we could have seen – three short, shocking and very funny snippets of serious theatre – she explains the situation before moving onto Moominmama: Swedish Detective.
Now, one of the main complaints about Lloyds much-anticipated hour this year, is the obscure and often alienating references. Presumably she's altered her show throughout the run, as for every moomin-based gag, there's a Girl With a Dragon Tattoo bit: a universal dig at Scandinavia with lines that are only funny on the proviso that you're a living, breathing human being with some awareness of pop culture. She also mentions the reviewers' comments about the aforementioned obscurity problem quite frequently.
You don't need to have seen TED Talks to laugh at a young boy's gross misinterpretation of William Shakespeare. Nor do you need to have seen TV series New Girl to appreciate Joey Beschamel, Lloyd's spot-on deconstruction of Zooey Deschanel's particularly loathsome brand of cupcake cuteness. Cockney Sam, the East Londoner with disturbing psychotic tendencies is the weakest of the five, mainly because the joke is centred around, well, his psychotic tendencies and not much else – but she still ekes out all possible humour, breaking into disturbingly violent songs and sporting a bloodstained apron.
Kitty Romford, the film noir asda worker as seen in an online sketch with Adam Riches is the strongest of the four; some of the words get lost in her enthusiasm, but this is an original, brilliantly funny take on one of the most parodied genres in comedy. Ripping off film noir is nothing new, but Lloyd makes it her own – ably showcasing her excellent improv skills during a spot of audience participation.
The decision to have a 'seriousness moderator' from the Pleasance constantly pop in and warn her to stop getting so poignant could easily be stilted and contrived, but this is avoided by her quick-witted responses. She plays the pretentious theatre-type almost too well. Almost, because there's enough likeability here to ensure the room is always kept firmly on side.
An ambitious, OTT film-esque finale nearly descends into schmaltz but is pulled back, again by Lloyd's writing, topping off what is a definite step up from last year's hour and, by the sounds of things, the start of the run. While some of the characters work better than others, and Moomin-fanatics will get a few more references than those that have never seen the childrens' TV show, there's more than enough universal routines to go round.
A cracking show from one of the strongest character comedians on the circuit at the moment. 
Cariad Lloyd: The Freewheelin' Cariad Lloyd is at the Pleasance Courtyard at 4:45pm until the 27th August
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