Elf Lyons: Pelican

It’s one of the more eye-catching 2016 flyers: the stylish, quirky design, that name —Elf Lyons!—and subsequent blurb, “sometimes wants to kill her mother”, plus the line about Lyons being trained at legendary clown college L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier.

That’s a lot for the actual show to live up to, in truth, and does all rather suggest that Pelican—again, intriguing—is going to take live comedy in some bold new direction, particularly when the announcer warns that Lyons won’t be using a microphone.

And, yes, there are some interesting narrative departures in this versatile director/performer's latest standup outing, as she equates that maternal relationship to a great oceanic adventure, for example. But generally this show is surprisingly naturalistic.

Mum does indeed sound eccentric, but Elf—mother calls her Emily, Elf calls herself "odd"—actually comes across as pretty regular – there are recurring references to The Sims, Twilight, various other major movies. The trumpeted clown training is barely evident either, as there’s little visual novelty, although that extravagant dress helps with the bird impressions.

Keeping it relatively simple is perhaps wise in your early Fringe shows, although the one self-indulgence here, the lack of microphone, doesn’t help. It frees her movement but also limits the tone, as Lyons is constantly projecting in order to outwit her real nemesis – not mother, but a loud fan, which affects her ability to dominate this room.

That’s unfortunate—but easily fixed, by mixing it up a bit—as generally this is an engaging show, which hopefully builds a platform for further experimentation. Embrace the Elfiness.