Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Who knew a show about finding the perfect two-piece skirt suit would be so uproariously funny, life-affirming, angry, dumb, insightful and political all at once?

There is, of course, more to Sam Nicoresti’s sophomore show than a shopping trip. Not least given how easy it is to read the travails of finding the most comfortable way to project the image you want as a metaphor for a trans comic partway through their gender journey.

If you’ve ever read the news, it will not come as much of a  surprise to learn that a trans woman buying an outfit includes a confrontation at a dressing room – this one exposing a certain chain’s vocal support for Pride as the empty corporate posturing it is.

Nicoresti makes pointed jokes about such performative gestures, but the funny always takes precedence over the political. That face-off proves the starting point for an hilarious routine as, finding the frock was not a good fit, neither fashion-wise nor physically, the comic finds themselves in a farcical series of ever-escalating public humiliations

Depending on which newspaper you read, trans women are either brave gender pioneers or the devil incarnate. But some of them are just idiots who get themselves into tight spots thanks to a certain stubbornness – or lack of options.

Intolerance is not the only obstacle Nicoresti faces, as they admit: ‘I suck at being a woman’. Changing your name requires no paperwork at all; fitting in with a new gender without feeling like a crude impersonation is a longer path. And if the comic feels imposter syndrome on a girls’ night out, imagine what they feel at a PTSD support group among battle-scarred veterans. Well, you don’t need to imagine, as Nicoresti paints a typically vivid picture of how embarrassing it was.

They found themselves there after they ‘went mad’, thanks in no small part to drugs and magic. Nicoresti is no stranger to superstition, telling how they passed through the Mên-an-Tol standing stones in Cornwall – which is said to restore changeling  babies back to their true selves – or ceremonially burning their trauma while on stage. That Nicoresti embraces folklore is little surprise given the comic is a nerd with attitude, with Baby Doomer featuring more  Lord Of The Rings references than you might expect.

The title, by the way, comes from the comedian mulling whether to have their sperm frozen before going on hormones, then deciding against it. After all, they confess they hate kids with a vengeance. Though to be fair, the comic does quite a lot with a vengeance. 

If it sounds like there’s a lot here, there is – even without mentioning the autism material. Nicoresti sets a scorching pace to keep the audience gripped – and with an enviable gag rate that achieves far more than the ‘laugh a minute’ benchmark they mock as too unambitious. 

As a regular compere, Nicoresti also engages in the odd bit of crowd work to keep the show fresh,  allowing them to approach a couple of points in an apparently spontaneous way.

While not everything in the story is positive, by the end  Nicoresti finds hope in an unexpected place, and shares the news that one chapter of their life ends with a heartwarming conclusion. You’ll have to pop along to see if that’s the successful purchase of a stylish skirt suit.

Review date: 4 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard