Katherine Ryan: Nature's Candy

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Katherine Ryan's schtick of undercutting her own superficial sweetness with cruelty and profanity is hardly ground-breaking. Like many of her ilk, she plays with the audience's expectations of how a female comic should present herself and delights in casually delivered filth. Fortunately, she doesn't confine herself exclusively to shock material and builds an impressive rapport with the audience so that their trust may be regained whenever she goes too far.

Originally from Canada's New Dundee, Ryan greets us with solid, self-effacing material on the ways in which her countrymen attempt to copy the Scottish. She has an obvious affection for her adopted home and applauds the sexually liberated Londoners with whom she evidently feels a kinship. Relationships inform a great deal of her set and she seems genuinely interested in discussing those of various audience members. These moments often drag as the comic appears to carry out a series of private conversations, but nonetheless add to her endearing appeal.

Many of the hour's best moments come as Ryan strays into more whimsical territory. A preview of her desired TV vehicle This Bitch allows her to wow us with some brilliantly cartoonish acting, while likening her two year old daughter to a sassy gay friend is remarkably unsentimental. Though Nature's Candy is too disparate and inconsistent to fully impress, it bodes extremely well for the performer's future.