Danielle Ward Lies

Danielle Ward is not a very good liar. This can be a problem in comedy, as many of the best comic anecdotes are utterly believable, but utterly false. For all its pretence of soul-baring honesty, contemporary stand-up has little room for congenital truth-tellers.

Ward has found this such a big problem that she's decided to theme a show around it; unfortunately, it only comes some of the way to addressing her weaknesses as a comic. One gets the feeling this is far from her best performance, as a sparse ragtag of bedraggled punters, sodden with rain, sits and gives off a "wet dog smell" whilst giggling rather reluctantly at most of her material. She starts by playing a game of 'true or false?', which has few direct gags but some startling facts - who knew that Andy Garcia was born with a parasitic conjoined twin on his shoulder? Later, she tests her acting skills by doing a deliberately bad impression of Adrian Chiles on the phone.

It's a quirky and unusual set, with a few very decent jokes. But Ward reaches a little too often and a little too lazily for the shock laugh, and there's also a reliance on pop culture references that are likely to bewilder a fair proportion of the Fringe's diverse audience. This becomes a particular problem in the big finale, which relies on a fairly detailed audience knowledge of a particular '80s movie and also, ironically, on Ward's own lying skills. Sadly, neither are strong enough for it to quite come off.