Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

There's something rather special here. When Daniel Maseda’s alter-ego Paulette enters the room, he is so crippled by the prospect of meeting anybody that he can only stare at the closed door, commenting on its perfect rectangle-ness, describing each handle and hinge. 

Dressed in a stifling hot pullover, he gradually builds up a little courage to make tentative moves towards the stage, clinging to the walls like a rookie ice-skater grasping the edge of the rink in terror. 

With a huge burst of courage, he turns to face the room, shocked and surprised to find people are here – which means the agonising prospect of small talk. Paulette is nervously garrulous, speaking without pause and with overly-eloquent words, trying too hard to impress without actually saying much at all. Each greeting is perfectly mannered – and perfectly insincere. 

It is a remarkable piece of clowning, with Maseda happy to improvise with what’s going on in the room, sometimes mirroring the people he speaks to. It’s a technique autistic people often use to mask the condition, although whether that’s what he’s drawing on here is unsaid. All this while tantalisingly not achieving much at all. 

He keeps this pretence up for more than  45 minutes, going from punter to punter until he reaches the stage with remarkably few lulls and repetitions given the nature of the interactions.

Unfortunately, all his previous work is rather undone once he makes it to the stage, with a babbling outburst of intense, random surrealism, angry and aggressive that’s near-impossible to follow. And he drives this into the ground, running the show long and leading to several walkouts when a blackout​ (and Paulette) gives them permission to do so. 

I suspect Maseda may be saying something about how our mannered exchanges keep a lid on the more ferocious, primal side of humanity, but it feels like a disappointing end to the hugely impressive tease that got us here.

Review date: 26 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly Bristo Square