When her fellow comics were padding about the Fringe in August 2010, Holly Walsh was clowning around on Worthing Pier. Unfortunately, her charity leap into the West Sussex sea resulted in a shocking injury that led to national media coverage for the ‘former CBBC presenter’. The Hollycopter is the culmination of a year’s brooding over this calamitous event which, eventually, Walsh was able to see the funny side of to carve out an hour of bittersweet comedy.

Though many of the online comments she shows us from the Daily Mail veer from the bone-headed to the downright inhumane, Walsh reckons that deep down they might have a point. Given that she appears prone to ‘stupid stuff’ happening to her (a mugging, a flashing, and a freakishly similar incident in her local swimming pool at the age of 11 among them), why on earth would she have even attempted such a daring feat?

Walsh may insist that she’s not a risk-taker, but it’s an act of extreme courage to re-live this trauma night after night in a sweaty cellar. Whoever said that stand-up comedy at its purest is a very public form of therapy has got it bang on.

Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 29 Aug, 6pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7–£8).

cheryl moves