REVIEW: Ria Lina at The Leadmill Comedy Club – 'clever and charming comic treat'

DESPITE the name of her tour – Riawakening 2024 – comedian Ria Lina confesses early on to her audience at Sheffield's The Leadmill that she doesn't really do puns.

There are three in the whole show – all of which, as a word play fan, I loved – but top spot has to go to: “Sorry I must have left my DNA in my other genes/jeans.”

What she DOES do is deliver an assured set tackling the challenges of post-pandemic life, divorce, parenthood, relationships in a digital era, identity and race.

Half-Philippine, half-German, she picked up the American accent while studying at an American School in the Netherlands as a teenager, she informs us.

But she was born in Buckinghamshire, she adds: “So I'm actually posher than you lot!”

She's also a darn sight cleverer, too – with a BSc in Experimental Pathology, an MSc in Forensic Science and a PhD in Virology, all attained while hankering after a career in the arts.

Indeed the merchandise is emblazoned with numerous lines and gags from the show including 'Now can I go into the arts?!' a plea she made to her mother – also a scientist – after each successful qualification.

And on the subject of motherhood, the mum-of-three also talks proudly of how she alone “made” her kids.

One of the gags of the night is when Lina points out to any objectors to the claim of her solo mission: “You don't give a cup of sugar to the neighbour and then say YOU baked a cake!”

There is also plenty of social commentary – she addresses her divorce and the difficulties of still living with her ex years on due, in so small part, to the cost of living crisis.

And after raising the issue of men's general lack of communication – she jokes her husband's friends found out they had divorced when they saw her on TV on Live at the Apollo – she also sets the male audience members homework for the interval, to text a friend and tell them you love them.

Caustic, clever, charming - a Ria-l (sorry) comic treat.