Between the Pages

You’ve probably seen Nina Conti on television (f you haven’t, get yourself over to YouTube right now and see what you’ve been missing). She is a very funny ventriloquist whose main (but not only) puppet is the foul mouthed monkey. Monkey was in fact the only puppet she used during this show, unless you count the various members of the audience who she got up on stage and used as life-size puppets, complete with facial masks.

At the top of the show, Nina told the audience that every performance is 90% improvised, and you soon realise that this must be correct, as every audience is different and therefore each night there will be a whole new source of characters. On this particular night, she had a couple who were out with their friend for her birthday on stage, a risk assessor for an insurance company and a Paramedic. Her reaction times to these people are quick and usually hilarious as she makes up the script for them as she goes along, and to be fair they all joined in good-naturedly.

For me however, the funniest parts of an altogether extremely funny performance were when she had Monkey on stage with her…especially when Monkey hosts a Q&A with the audience while Nina herself is in a black bag, and he then fills her in on what was said by the audience.

Overall, this was a hugely enjoyable evening packed with laughter! Judging by the faces of the rest of the audience as people filed out afterwards, this performance was a great success and I would definitely recommend catching a Nina Conti show live if you get the chance.