Four years ago, when I first saw Ocean Denham at the 2021 Dunedin Fringe Festival, it was clear that she was still finding her comedic voice.

Her latest solo hour is undeniable evidence that she is a formidable comedic force. Ocean commands the stage with the slick confidence and fearless energy of a seasoned pro. Her on-stage persona is bolder and more captivating than ever. She flirts with the crowd, teases, and brings overt sexual aggression to the stage. She embodies the sassy, self-assured attitude that makes her magnetic to watch. I found myself laughing constantly, but also genuinely afraid of what she might say next.

Her show is an uninterrupted hour of quality jokes, densely packed with rapid-fire punchlines. Very little time is spent discussing her car, but as a vehicle, her show swiftly races through hilarious anecdotes, observations, personal confessions, a psychic revelation, and closes with a song. Within, she questions the legitimacy of give way signs, the highly questionable incestuous undertones of American culture, and recounts a traumatic memory involving fireworks, a trampoline, and the threat of deportation.

A Hot Girl and Her Suzuki Swift delivers precisely what exceptional stand-up comedy should: relentless humour, all propelled by a performer who knows exactly how to drive full throttle. If you miss Ocean Denham now, you’ll undoubtedly be paying premium prices to see her in much larger venues very soon.

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Ocean Denham is indeed a hot girl. It’s undeniable, after all she drives a Suzuki Swift. Which is a hot car – but not in the stolen sense, or the mechanically-enhanced sense. However, if you google Suzuki Swift, you too will find out that it is cute, reliable, lovable, you will feel the thrill, and it is the most affordable car in New Zealand. All things that I could say about this show!

This show is a wonderful mix of making connections, hilarious stories and an insight into Ocean’s inner thoughts. Up front she declares that we are now her friends, bonded in trust to witness her confessions. It’s an invitation impossible to refuse, as she hits the stage making us laugh with her, not at her. And though she was arguably the youngest person in the Cavern Club tonight, none of us are so old as to not remember living in flats or with parents, the awkwardness of having nowhere to ‘entertain’ and the inequities of dating. In the intimate setting of the Cavern Club, we are all in it together.

In this show, we get glimpses into a life already full of experiences, only a few of which there is time for Ocean to share, and I look forward to further shows and revelations to come.

After the show as I wait outside for my lift, a young couple come out of the venue. I ask if they enjoyed the show. They did! And was I a friend of Ocean’s, they asked rather coyly? I said I did not know her, but did they? They did not either. But then we all realised that we were actually her friends now, accepted onto the friendship tree, and we all smiled with genuine delight at this realisation. Off they went hand in hand, in a glow of human connection.

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