Erin Farrington @ Pleasance Courtyard

From the moment you first see Erin Farrington perform (whether in her Fringe debut, Instagram videos, or her turn as Stamptown’s mousy stage manager) her characters impress. They share a nervousness  – sometimes lacking the self-esteem to control the chaos around them, sometimes trying to gain control by being difficult and critical. They somehow both lack and have a surfeit of self-awareness. And they are usually funny because we know these people – sometimes more intimately than we'd like to admit.

In Think Better: Manifesting Money, Real Estate and Hot People, Farrington embodies a woman desperate to be liked. She’s leading a seminar on manifesting your goals, and the misbalanced power dynamic she creates is just a last ditch attempt to make friends. It might not sound it, but she’s a compelling character we like spending time with – perfect for a workplace sitcom, should any casting directors be reading this.

Think Better doesn’t exactly follow through on the premise of teaching us to manifest our dreams (it’s more a dander through various ways of preying on the gullible), but that feels incredibly on brand for this particular market. It’s fun watching Farrington use the audience for her spurious ends, alleging as she does that only she can protect us from those who would take advantage of us. We’re taken from vivid and surprising guided meditations through lengthy sections of getting to know the crowd and their desires.

Although she clearly has a knack for picking the audience members with the most fascinating lives, this means that the emphasis slips away from that endearing central character whose presence underpins the whole show. We’re left wanting to get to know her a bit better (how on earth did she get here?) and with any luck, we’ll find out in the future.

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Erin Farrington – Think Better: Manifesting Money, Real Estate and Hot People, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Two), until 25 Aug (not 14), 5.40pm, £7-11