Ania Magliano @ Pleasance Courtyard

Ania Magliano's Edinburgh Fringe debut is an accomplished, easy-going hour of standup

Review by Emma Sullivan | 15 Aug 2022
  • Ania Magliano

It’s quickly clear just what an accomplished stand-up 22-year-old Ania Magliano is. The easy-going warmth of her delivery and her mastery of the material ensures that, minutes into the show, there is a palpable sense of well-being in the room.

It’s all very genial and understated: her mother’s malapropisms, her step-dad (a random bloke from Derby who’s now part of her life, a fact that she’s clearly delighted by). There’s no big dramas, and that low-key vibe continues with her coming-out narrative (she’s bisexual), which, despite her daydreams of being a hero to the cause and nobly educating her family, turns out to be a hilarious non-event.

A sequence about her experience at an all-girls school where the pupils cope with the weirdness of the environment by ‘either developing an eating disorder or becoming horse girls’ spirals into an epic, free-wheeling bit which spins out to include a pitch perfect survey of cultural touchstones, from Hugh Jackman to Louis Theroux.

There’s the occasional moment of something more serious: the casual panic attack (which she’s characteristically matter of fact about), and some fretting about not being interesting enough. The bit about children’s stories which breed expectations of high drama and then disappointment in a less exciting reality feels really significant; there’s something important here about the risk of such narratives preventing us from occupying our own lives with contentment.

But contentment is exactly what this show offers, and it’s marked how swiftly any edginess or unease melts away, to be replaced by the sheer pleasure of spending time in Magliano’s company.


Ania Magliano: Absolutely No Worries If Not, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Three), until 28 Aug, 4.35pm, run sold out