Netflix special reviewed by Steve Bennett

Though born in Canada, London-based Mae Martin has been classed as British by Netflix, perhaps for the sake of making their Comedians Of The World series of stand-up specials more geo-diverse. Still, the UK should be happy to claim her on the strength of this frank and funny confessional show.

Dope is short for dopamine, the brain’s pleasure chemical that addicts are always seeking to release. And Martin, we soon learn, has an addictive personality - described as being akin to having an easily-awoken psychopathic shrimp in her head.

It might have started innocuously enough with a pre-teen crush on Bette Midler, but even this obsession harmed her school work and her family relationships. In adult life, her drugs have been stand-up, relationships and - well – drugs. 

The first of the three started when she made a first, probably illegal, visit to a comedy club when she was 11 and brought up on stage, giving her the dopamine hit of performance that she was instantly hooked on. And she also started an adolescent stalking of  the regular comics, so it might not be the best message that such behaviour could ultimately lead to a Netflix special.

This half-hour version of Dope sadly skips some of the eye-popping detail of the full 60-minute festival show, and a little of the emotional pull, but it remains a cracking story, witty and self-aware from start to finish.

Her openness is appealing, as is the way she successfully makes drug addiction relatable, via hypothetical scenarios about phones and exes we can all imagine all-too-clearly in sharply observed sections that offer a deeper significance than any ‘have you ever noticed…’ routines.

• Mae Martin - Dope was released on Netflix today as part of its Comedians Of The World series. Watch here

Review date: 1 Jan 2019
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett