Vikki Stone: Hot Mess

Vikki Stone is hardly a hot mess. Sure, she mentions it a couple of times at the top of the show before the rest of the hour becomes an unconnected series of songs on popular culture, bits of standup and a fair few parodies, but there's nothing messy about her. 

She's got a strong voice, can play the shit out of a piano and her standup is well rehearsed without much of the promised chaos. Coming across as slick and likeable, unfortunately there just aren't enough jokes. And the parodies—those of Hilary Devay and an especially long, drawn out Deal or No Deal routine—are more wacky than full-on belly laugh inducing. 

Such observations on pop culture are intentionally silly, but go no further than cartoonish, rather obvious lampooning and the songs themselves do all sound remarkably similar. One that talks of a well endowed lover is probably the strongest, but it's still far from comedy gold, despite her energetic delivery. 

In terms of the show as a whole, well yes it's a bit of a structural mess – which is how Stone wants it. Putting in a song about how reviewers hate how vulgar she is (despite there being very little vulgarity in the hour) and complaining about the fact that comics always need to have a structure means she gets away with it – or so she tells us. But, whether this was intentional or not, it just looks like a lazy way of excusing incoherence.

She is certainly talented, but this hour isn't a worthy showcase of what Vikki Stone is truly capable of.