Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Maia Tassalini says she has the energy of a one-night-stand baby. Her parents met in a club in Florida, parted the next morning and have stayed as far away as possible from each other ever since, with Maia raised by her mother and a community of gay men in London. 

Initially a shy, bookish and neurotic child, at some point her training kicked in and she became the camp, fabulous diva who now brings her show to the Fringe for the first time.

From the opening ten minutes, which Tassalini uses to review the outfits of her audience and undertake a small fashion competition, it’s clear that this is a personality-driven show, but what a personality! She has a veteran’s command of the room and radiates a glittery charisma that alternately pushes the audience away and pulls them in.

The scripted element of the show works well too, running on the kind of ornate, hedonistic witticisms of which John Tothill is currently the gold standard. She also has a very persistent running thread about – of all people – Monica Lewinsky, who she has been told she resembled, and subsequently became obsessed with the idea of this young woman who exercised her sexuality and almost toppled a government. 

It’s not a bad hook to return to, but Tassalini hangs a little too much on it, and comes back again and again, to the extent that she gets sidetracked from her own story. The show desperately wants the payoff of some kind of response or acknowledgement from Lewinsky, but as of yet that hasn’t happened, leaving it to feel like a conversation about an elephant that’s running late to the room.

But, to return to my own hook, this is not an experience where we need to worry about themes and structure too much. Tassalini’s star power is the draw here, and on that front it delivers in spades.

Review date: 25 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard