You simply don’t expect a ventriloquist to be as funny as Conti. But her side-splitting appearances on Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC 3) and Live at the Apollo (BBC1) prove that this richly intelligent, technically perfect and utterly engaging performer – a sort of ‘alternative vent’ – is a master at subverting expectations and re-inventing her genre.
Conti has a fascination for exploring the split psyche of the ventriloquist and sharing it with the audience. Exuberant and playful, she’s not afraid of the dark side. In theory, love, life and death are on the menu when the BAFTA nominated filmmaker graces Tivvy’s Comedy Hall to preview her ‘Dolly Mixtures’ show, based on Shakespeare’s ‘seven ages of man’ speech from ‘As You Like It’ on 21st September 2013. But that’s only if her seven puppets let her get a word in.
‘Dolly Mixtures’ features such favourites as ‘Edinburgh Gran’ as well as new characters including her daughter, her handyman and an aggressive pitbull with hints of a dark back story. She’s accompanied by her long-standing side-kick ‘Monk’, a depressed and cynical monkey, who continually swears and insults her when he doesn’t get his demands met, and who even does stand up from his own unique perspective.
Conti began her performance career as an actress, and was a member of the RSC in Stratford in 2000, but made her Edinburgh Festival debut as a ventriloquist with Ken Cambell’s ‘Let Me Out’ in 2001. Since then she’s won the BBC4 New Comedy Award, appeared in Black Books (Channel 4), Claire in the Community (Radio 4), two Christopher Guest mockumentaries, and Let’s Dance For Comic Relief.
As Comedy Hall veterans know, previews are a rare opportunity to watch as consummate comedians polish and hone their material in an intimate setting, in preparation for a tour. Past previews at the Comedy Hall have included caustic anti-establishment, ex-heavy metal drummer Steve Hughes, TV’s perennial ‘work experience’ Rhod Gilbert, and comedy music genius Bill Bailey.
‘Dolly Mixtures’ will also see Conti reprieving her clever ‘face mask’ device – persuading a couple of members of the audience to wear them on the lower halves of their faces, effectively making them puppets and taking over their speech. While most if the scene is scripted, it’s quite obvious that she’s responding to them and improvising in the moment. You feel as though anything could happen. And it’s a clever way to get them to abandon control and to play the fool without any self-consciousness, with truly hilarious results.
“Put simply, Nina Conti is a genius” (The Mirror). We have to agree…
Nina Conti is at the Comedy Hall in Tiverton on 21st September 2013 at 8pm.
Phone: 07931 151545
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