Eirlys Bellin: Unaccustomed As I Am

Presenting herself as a successful public speaking guru, likeable comic actress Eirlys Bellin introduces four more characters who’ve recently sought her help. With this neat, straightforward framing device, economically accomplished with a quick change of footwear, Bellin is amusing enough as speech expert Hayley, slotting in a lovely allusion to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in the wake of an awards ceremony stagediving incident.

Engaging throughout, the Welsh comic nevertheless falls into a pattern of provoking polite titters rather than consistent laughs. Hayley’s first client, a middle-aged woman desperately trying to ingratiate herself with youngsters at her daughter’s birthday party, namedropping pop bands in clunking malapropisms, is scarcely original – though her efforts to turn the event into a Facebook-invite free for all display more invention. Similarly, posh Grace, campaigning to become residents’ association president of her tower block after a fall on hard times is captured with the broadest strokes, though there’s the odd line to suggest the character could succeed with greater depth of detail from Bellin.

Next, a tipsy bridesmaid, flouting convention to address the wedding reception, settle a few scores and make an ill-advised declaration of love, truly starts to grate with her relentless textspeak. Yet Bellin finishes assuredly. Her Mexican cleaner, delivering a eulogy on the old pervert she used to work for, is a more layered creation, a caricature to be sure but an enjoyable one, blurting more than she knows when she repeats her late employer’s kinky instructions.