Review of the comic's latest tour

Floozy, Harriet Kemsley says, is an aspirational state. Having divorced fellow comic Bobby Mair, she now wants to put herself back out there, so has signed up to the dating apps, eager to play the field.

It means that, by day, she’s bringing up a near-five-year-old daughter, Mabel, while, at night, she’s dating adult men. Two worlds that, she says, are not as far apart as they first appear.

This, then, is a catalogue of dating disasters with a few bad men. But nights out are just as likely to be derailed by her own ditzy, unrestrained, naive and oversharing personality. Traits that are useful on the stand-up stage are more of a disadvantage on a date, and it’s soon obvious she’s not cut out to adopt the titular label.

Her account is fairly linear, so the stories of who she met, clumsy first encounters and whether they led to anything settle into something of a pattern. One structural device here – which provides a slightly corny callback to end the show – is a list of things she wants from a potential partner, and despite setting the bar lower than a limbo contest, few candidates can clear that.

Dating disasters are mixed with stories from Kemsley’s burgeoning TV career on the likes of Last One Laughing, on which she shone, boosting her profile, and The Weakest Link, where she made a less good impression. 

Sometimes there are consequences when the professional and personal sides of her life collide. Her accidentally mentioning a recently ended relationship on The Jonathan Ross Show ends up with some poor guy being roasted by Hugh Bonneville. Kemsley also gets tongue-tied while talking to newspapers about whether men find female stand-ups attractive – and then is shocked at how the words she actually said come across in stark black and white.

Whether all these self-effacing stories are as impactful or as funny as they need to be is a little moot, but Floozy is an entertaining download of where Kemsley is at this point in life, and – for all the setbacks – it strikes an upbeat note thanks to the confidence with which she’s tackling life.

Her trademark frankness, and the frenetic energy which powers it  – and indeed her entire life – give extra fizz to this ‘catching-up-with-a-gossipy-mate’ style show.

• Harriet Kemsley: Floozy is on tour until February. Harriet ​Kemsley tour dates

Review date: 7 Oct 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Leicester Square Theatre