Ele McKenzie @ Pleasance Courtyard
In a bumper year for exciting new acts, Ele McKenzie is a gorgeously distinctive comedy voice
Two minutes into her Fringe debut, Ele McKenzie nods, pleased, says "we're getting along", and the plunge into intimacy begins. The break-up with her boyfriend; the move back home; her relationship with her mother, Jane; her masturbation habits; the state of her bowels. For the latter, sensing some tension, McKenzie is entirely unperturbed: "Jane said you wouldn't like that one".
She makes great use of this rather stolid, singular quality (such as just calling her mother by her name) to signal an obliviousness which is also there in the oversharing. McKenzie leans on a certain idiosyncrasy in her appearance: "I was a rotund child, that's why I stand like a fat baby – muscle memory", and the chat about her iPad (complete with massive plastic handle) adds to the flavour of overgrown child.
The beautifully phlegmatic quality of the first third shifts into another gear, and into something with a bit more intent. It peaks with a sequence about Bob Dylan that is both blatant wish fulfilment and very funny; the fantasy provides the solution to all McKenzie's problems, making her ex jealous and finally catching her absent father's attention. Even in this deeply idiosyncratic show, with a persona that feels largely free from feminine hang-ups, male approval is still a nagging preoccupation. In some ways, the fantasy is the most intimate of all the things she shares – one of those extended daydreams which can take up such a large part of our waking life and which are rarely shared.
This is feeling like a bumper year for exciting new acts and Ele McKenzie, like fellow newcomer Marty Gleeson, is another gorgeously distinctive comedy voice.
Ele McKenzie: Bringing It All Back Home, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Two), until 30 Aug, 8.10pm, £13.50-£15.50