Review of the comic's return to stand-up

Sue Perkins conducts a straw poll at the top of her show to gauge audience expectations. Are we here to see Bake Off Sue, with more puns and double entendres about pastry than you thought possible? Are we here to see Just A Minute Sue, the reassuringly clubbable Radio 4 presence? Are we here to see Celebrity Sue, of travelogue repute? Or maybe we’re here to see Mel and got confused…

What we actually get is a Sue we’ve not seen much of, if any, in the three decades that she’s been a familiar face in our living rooms: Stand-Up Sue.

In some ways her inexperience in this genre shows. Some routines, especially early doors, come off as scripted, like a witty newspaper column, and despite the titular promises of exposing her shame, the theme is loosely adhered to and the soul-baring carefully measured. 

There are revelations that will definitely come as a surprise, but despite her vow to peel away the layers of her image until we are left with the ‘smallest, saddest’ version of herself, she nonetheless tends to keep her emotions at a very British arm’s length compared to younger generations of less filtered comedians.

What is not a surprise is that she's a skilled and natural comic anecdotalist. The audience are admittedly on-side already, but she uses that familiarity as a basis to invite the room into her confidence, to share stories that show her in an unflattering light – even as she uses the narrator’s privilege to mould precisely what we see of her.  

The introduction is relatively gentle, starting with sending off poop samples and  her relationship with her Zoe app berating her for her food choices. She mimics her nagging, robotic tone well – not the only time she creates an effective mini-sketch acting out an exaggerated vision of her experiences. The re-creation of the stern, moralising nun who taught her – and who still lives in Perkins’ head to this day – is especially fine.

In part one, there are more tales about shamen than shame, a story of taking mescaline for a TV travel show that could probably serve as an anti-drug public service announcement for generations, and a literal and metaphorical shaggy-dog story about rescuing one of the many street mutts in Bolivia, at unreasonable time and expense. 

Her big revelations come in the second half. ‘This is where it gets interesting,’ Perkins tells us, and she’s not wrong. She’s got ADHD - of course she has, you can barely call yourself a comic without it these days – but also a benign pituitary tumour, which makes her mind even more unpredictable, a trait that comes to a head in an insanely ambitious round trip from London to Cornwall. 

Her sometimes peculiar behaviour may explain why some people believed an joke story she wrote for an NHS anthology, which she forensically dissects to an extent that More Or Less economist Tim Harford gets involved. Even in her stand-up, the line between fiction and reality is often blurred for the sake of a gag – but when she gets real, raw and revelatory, Perkins is at her peak

This is most prominent in a headline-grabbing revelation about a mental health incident. We are thoroughly absorbed and the story is told with a light touch without undermining its seriousness. This exposing candour forms a powerful combination with her innate chummy demeanour… if she could maintain it for the whole show she’d be a real comic powerhouse.

Perkins wraps up with a story about intimate photos being leaked online – which she discovered at the most inopportune time, midway through an anti-Brexit rally. This anecdote talks more to the shame theme, and how wrenching control of the narrative can combat that debilitating feeling. With her first concerted moves into stand-up for decades, the nice lady off the telly is taking great strides in that direction. 

• The Eternal Shame Of Sue Perkins is touring until April. Sue Perkins tour dates

Review date: 3 Feb 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Rose Theatre