Caroline Mabey: Eat Your Friends

Caroline Mabey is that teacher. You know, the self-consciously zany one who would sprinkle conversations with puns, eager to let you know she knew just how awful they were but was saying them anyway.

While this might be something you were at least prepared to tolerate in double English Lit, it wears a bit thin as the basis for an hour's standup. The fifth time Mabey trots out a dreadful snatch of wordplay and shrieks "It's a pun! It's a pun!", the magic has definitely left the building. Repetition is a fine humorous device, but only if the joke was funny in the first place.

Mabey's persona resembles an earnest—if misguided—children's entertainer, determined to give the audience an off-the-wall tour round the quirky topic of breakfast. Unfortunately, it turns out that there isn't a lot to say about breakfast – not for Mabey anyway. Her disjointed set lacks rhythm, and she goes a long time between big laughs.

Some of the jokes hit home, especially when Mabey diverts into something a bit more daring—Harold Shipman, say, or swinging—but these brief asides aren't enough to support the show as a whole.

Eat Your Friends is ultimately saved from being consigned into the Fringe's bottom drawer by the dedication of some of the audience. While those around them are left cold, a select few embrace Mabey's jaunty, pun-laden approach. There's very little special here, but if you're the sort to consider "lettuce" sounding like "letters" the height of wit, it might be for you.