Catie Wilkins is an unusual comedian; she’s shy, she says and as she steps onto the stage blinking she looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Luckily for her, she also ‘gets off on peril’ and in a room full of people waiting for her to make them laugh that’s exactly what she’s doing.

Wilkins’ show revolves around names and identity. She takes us through what it’s like to be called‘Joy’ but not be a particularly smiley person, whether where you come in the alphabet determines your success in life and how it feels to be a skinny woman in the voluptuous 50s.

Mildly feminist and endearingly self-deprecating, Wilkins is the kind of stand-up that you’d never expect to start chatting about snaggletooth fellatio and AIDS, but when she does it’s hugely funny.
Her understated style of comedy might seem lacklustre, but Wilkins has something more outgoing comedians don’t: the power of surprise.