Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are many ways of looking at comedy; what floats one boat is likely to cause offence in another. The only way to look at comedy is just to go with it and enjoy what you see, if it is near the knuckle, if it disturbs you, makes you think too much of what another soul is going through then don’t go again, however should pathos and humour, the intelligent and the forthright honesty with a huge dose of the ultimate psychological feel good emotion of flirting thrown in, then you could no better than spending an evening with London comedian Tiff Stevenson and her take on the world of optimism.

The Gilded Balloon inside the Edinburgh University student buildings is in itself a place of wonder, various corridors, back entrances and sideways glances lead perfectly to the world of Tiff Stevenson.

For an hour the Edinburgh Fringe really felt like the best place to be in August, it probably is anyway to be fair, short of suddenly finding yourself in your favourite sun kissed, free drinks on tap, and no shortage of music get away, The Edinburgh Festival and Fringe is the place to be. For Tiff Stevenson, a comic who has come to prominence through her truthful, soul bearing comedy and utterly compelling set, it is a city in which the soul can be bared just a little more. It might make some uncomfortable, perhaps squeamish, with some of the choices of subject matter that comes out but throughout it all she is engaging, she is honest in the same way that the late great Robin Williams was and that is the point, comedy at times can never be beaten when it is reflective on society and the person’s role within it.

The brilliance of Dara O’ Briain with his observational aspect, Milton Jones with the completely absurd but superbly vivid use of the language and the complexity therein will always get the audiences cheering but the reflective, the battles and demons that a person will undergo and come out the other side, albeit with one wary eye on the past, is by nature something that is more memorable, more charming, direct and human.

Tiff Stevenson is the embodiment of that comedic display and should be, and was, roundly applauded for the look at life in which dazzles. There is nothing finer that seeing using what has happened in their life to draw upon making others laugh and more importantly making them think. Regardless of how you think of certain subjects, they should not be considered taboo in what can be seen as some distasteful throwback to a Victorian era in which the personal thought, the soul baring was seen as objectionable, in which the stiff upper lip lauded, it might be all well and good to be seen as aloof to mental adversity but it doesn’t help society to understand it.

Tiff Stevenson is arguably one of the finest comedians on the circuit, alongside Dara O’ Briain, Milton Jones, Hugh Dennis, Nina Conti and Shappi Khorsandi, she is a true pleasure to watch but most of all she is the queen of the reflective and personal. A gift from the comedy gods, an eternal optimist!

Ian D. Hall