Celia Pacquola: Delayed

Listening to your best friend talk about their long distance relationship for an hour can be a trying affair, so it takes a comic of rare charisma to perform it as a standup set for strangers. Celia Pacquola certainly has that charisma. 

The recently emigrated Australian specializes in casual over-sharing, ugly dancing and charmingly convincing the audience that ‘You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’ really refers to toilet paper. Yet Delayed feels like it could have benefitted from a little more time: its flourishes of greatness are not quite followed through satisfactorily.

There’s little that links the standup set besides her recent move, motivated by a desire for personal growth and transformation. But the life-changing part of this step has been rather set-back by the humiliation of a British train toilet door sliding inopportunely open and the irks of time-lord air stewards dictating her sleep patterns. And her boyfriend isn’t here.

Pacquola certainly injects exuberant energy into this familiar realm of observational comedy. Her culture clash gags are eminently repeatable. But it’s slender pickings for a whole show and her use of props is sporadically brilliant enough to feel underused. A massive paper-mache hand on a stick barely has a cameo. 

Delayed may be a delightful showcase of Pacquola’s charm but a tighter structure and meatier material might prevent her from having to ad-lib, with admitted brilliance: “Ah groan; the laugh’s slow cousin.”