Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Alice-India gives off ‘Catholic energy’, but she’s actually just a people pleaser. She recently went through a break-up. She used to work in marketing, but now works in a ‘posh school’.

Still reading? You may already suspect that Alice-India is unlikely to become your new favourite comedian. There’s just not all that much to make her a compelling character worthy of investing in.

Given that, she very sensibly takes the most interesting thing that’s happened to her – getting arrested ten days before her autism and ADHD diagnoses – and uses it as the most prominent throughline of See You In Hell. She regularly elicits guesses from the audience on what they think she might have been arrested for, toying with the possibility that she might be a credible delinquent after all.

Let’s focus on the more intriguing elements. ‘I’ve had literally hundreds of jobs,’ she comments as she details with charm and a light touch the fact that Channel 4 have interviewed her four times for the same role, due to their policy of guaranteeing interviews to disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria. 

One joke around the word ‘canonised’ is a good, if too rare, example of skilled joke-writing. A comment about abattoirs is very nicely observed, as is the logic offered for why she lost her youthful interest in kink. And while her crowdwork doesn’t electrify, posing the question ‘what depth of tampon do you use?’ is a very enjoyable line that will help mask that fact for now.

It’s difficult to not compare the performance to Jessie Cave and Grace Campbell, two of the country’s finest, most absorbing oversharers. That’s not to say that you have to be a fascinating person to be successful in comedy: lots of outright boring people have had lucrative careers. They just get around this issue by telling lies, exaggerating their lives and their flaws, or simply not making themselves the subject of their stand-up at all. 

There’s one tale here – where her dad uses the word ‘lesbian’ – that perhaps feels like the moment most likely to be a lie, and it’s maybe no surprise that it’s also one of the show’s funniest moments.

When she finally reveals the relatively full-on act that caused her arrest, you’ll be on her side. Partly because of how the incident played out, but also because, by this stage, she’s established strong likability. She’s chatted to everybody. She’s even made us friendship bracelets. She really wants to get us on side. 

Let’s be clear: you’d be rooting for her regardless, even if you’re also mentally indexing her as a comedian not to keep close tabs on. The story about getting arrested is the most narratively strong moment of the show, but it also means the hour has something of a theatrical climax, rather than a comedic one. A people-pleaser to an extent, then.

Review date: 14 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Mark Muldoon
Reviewed at: Underbelly Bristo Square