Let’s get the facts out of the way first. Abby Govindan is an absolute powerhouse. She has achieved more, written more, pulled more internet pranks, attracted more reactions, toured more countries than most people ever will. She’s been on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and convinced the BBC that she was the creator of the show Emily in Paris.
But this, her Edinburgh debut, isn’t a powerhouse. It’s partly a reportage of the last few years of top performing tweets (which are, undoubtedly, smart and funny). It’s partly a set of musings about finding one’s place in life and love as a 29-year-old. It’s partly a warts and all love letter to her Indian family and culture. This is all sweet stuff, but much of this is delivered via an earnest lecture, rather than comedy. And that’s the problem. Govindan’s accurately self-confessed “fun camp counsellor energy” means we give her a lot of latitude to get what she needs off her chest and the hour is never unpleasant. But somewhere along the way a director has given the same latitude.
Most bafflingly, this is also a PowerPoint slide deck, a crutch which adds little that a better-edited script could not. The slides that read “that was a story about…” are particularly egregious. When Govindan gets in to her stride, she’s a superstar. There’s a lovely routine about the different reactions a particular jumper elicits, with well-worked outrage and a clever twist. So much more craft in these moments than there is in tritely telling an audience that I am “liv[ing] my life true to myself”.
Abby Govindan: Pushing 30, Pleasance Courtyard, until 30 Aug (not 17), 9.35pm