Caroline Mabey

Pushing through the training session, and despite the quietness of the room, Mabey manages to raise the intensity a bit and get most of the audience on-side, including the husband of a woman who left five minutes in. Being aware of potential distractions we move on to the serious risks involved in a One Minute Silence, including muscle fatigue and suicide.

Mabey relies heavily on her projector, most of her slides are intentionally simplistic, but then has smooth conversations with her animated characters, Mr Scrangles the scrambled egg and the Coffee Pot. Despite a brief technical failure, we discover in an ironic yet adoringly serious way, that Mabey also has less glamorous technology like faxes supporting her show.

Before the big finale, Mabey slightly breaks character to tell us of the other shows she wanted to do in Edinburgh instead, in a carefully crafted and well-judged prelude to her smart finish.

It feels like an original show, yet has hints of Will Adamsdale's award-winning Jackson’s Way and her favourite word ‘Amazing!’ is very reminiscent of Greg Davies as mind-reader Derren Chilblain. Despite these influences, Mabey has put together something entertaining and unique, and you'd be hard pushed to remain silent throughout it.