COMEDY REVIEW: Sara Pascoe at Sheffield Leadmill

HAVING only seen Sara Pascoe on TV panel shows and briefly doing stand-up on Live at the Apollo, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when her tour show rolled into South Yorkshire.

But I’m happy to report only good news. Her latest Edinburgh-bound set is a guffaw-filled combination of the astutely-observed, the thought-provoking and the downright silly.

If there is a theme, it is whether you can be a “good” person simply by not doing “bad” things or if you actively have to perform “good” deeds.

Such a loose restriction gives Pascoe free range to wander off on various tangents, from the brother protester who unwittingly provides his enemies with free publicity through the worryingly menacing appearance of taxi drivers to a misunderstanding about what constitutes joining the Mile High Club.

In keeping with Pascoe’s book, Animal, there’s plenty of discussion of the weird, wonderful and unappreciated aspects of the human body, with a general encouragement to love it for what it is.

The 35-year-old, who quips that she doesn’t mind ageing “because I didn’t make the mistake of having kids”, comes across as an honest and vulnerable character, freely admitting she’s not thought through first everything she says and never suggesting she has all the answers.

A sellout Leadmill crowd enjoyed a little bit of banter, a firm heckler take-down and a solid hour-and-a-half of laughs.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about human nature and the human body  and let’s face it, everyone has one — this is about as fun a way to do so as any.

Pascoe opens by saying she thought she’d been to Sheffield before but realised when she stepped off the train that she hadn’t. Hopefully, this visit was memorable enough to merit a return sooner rather than later.