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Started stand-up in 2003, becoming a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards and the Hackney Empire new act competition (where she came third) within a year. In 2004,she was one of the six stand-up housemates in E4/C4\'s Kings Of Comedy show. In 2007, she was selected to take part in NBC\'s Last Comic Standing after taking part in the London audition, but was unable to take part in the American legs of the show after encountering visa problems.

Ava Vidal: Remember Remember The 4th Of November – Fringe 2009
Live Review

Ava Vidal's measured, deadpan delivery is no accident; she, it seems, follows the old adage famously adopted by Teddy Roosevelt: 'Speak softly and carry a big stick.'

No wonder she's confident. Her stick – a biting, brutal wit capable of inflicting serious blows on its targets – is a force to be reckoned with.

In this thoughtful and thought-provoking set, Vidal wonders if the election of Barack Obama could inspire her to lead a better life. From winding up inmates in her former career as a prison officer to her recent arrest on drug charges, she's certainly got somewhere to move on from. It's a loose theme, however and judging by her tone, not one this born rebel is entirely serious about.

Vidal worries about her relationship with drink, especially since her parents were alcoholics. She lectures her teenager about responsibility and maturity, aware of the irony of her argument. She was a single mum as a teenager but, again brandishing that brilliantly warped logic, you can't argue that having two kids doesn't teach you responsibility. There's no catching Vidal out, so let's hope her daughter cuts her losses now.

Even on the political issues, which Vidal takes very seriously indeed, she refuses to succumb to straightforward tub-thumping, preferring to make her feelings known by more inventive means.

She may turn on those who throw eggs at BNP members because, she argues it makes the right-wingers into heroes defending the right to free speech, or get angry at the fashion for 'ironic' racism in comedy,  but she's not above exposing her own prejudices, as she demonstrates at the end of the show in a supposedly PC rant that really isn't.

It's this self-awareness that makes her ferocious intensity palatable. She certainly doesn't try to win her audience round with charm and her act is all the more powerful for it. This is close-to-the-knuckle material that will make you wince as you laugh... and then question why. In a scene dominated mainly by unthreatening feel-good comedy, it's refreshing to see evidence that stand-up still has teeth.

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SAw Ava play in Chester two weeks ago, she was awful. She even read her entire act from a piece of paper, one of the worst stand ups I have ever seen... drivel

Dai, July 2010

Utter utter shit. False, unpleasant and totally unlikeable in the dullest possible sense.

Andy B., February 2010

Saw her live in edinburgh for 1st time - a funny woman with some great writing - delivery too laid-back for most of the subject matter

andy Barr, August 2009

Worked with Ava recently on a really strong bill in a rowdy club, she was great. A really natural storyteller, I really enjoyed her - a very funny lady.

Adam Ethan Crow, July 2008

Saw Ava last night at the Comedy Store. Great (novel) material; though not sure if that's because I've never heard a black woman comic before. Delivery was beautifully paced, also.

Kevster, March 2008

I want a refund! I like to see new and up and coming acts yet I felt she was very cheap and terrible gags. Get this girl off stage, you wasted my evening!

Simon, November 2007

Boarding-school rebel, teenage single mother, victim of racism and violence… It all fuels an act which is – pretty laid-back actually. And that poise is her biggest achievement of all. She doesn't clumsily patch together joke after joke in a desperate attempt for a laugh, she has the guts and the style and the control to reel us in nice and slow. She doesn't disabuse her past to spice up otherwise limp lines, she uses it to structure the routines, to form an opinion, to tell a story. A story to win over the drunkest of hecklers. (Mind you, would you heckle an ex-prison officer?) But don't worry, this isn't an ain't-it-tough-being-a-black-woman number. The subjects make Lenny Bruce look like Des O'Connor, but just when it's turning into Newsnight she unleashes a delicious barb, a satirical twist, or a plain silly giggle. It only flags when she's too enmeshed in herself and seems to be celebrating some personal triumph. We wanna bust our breeches laughing, not attend someone's private exorcism. But overall, Ava has the sus and the sass and the class to succeed. One to watch? Definitely.

Michael Monkhouse, October 2007

I thought Ava won the London audition of Last Comic Standing... What happened? Am I wrong?

Tory, July 2007

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