In the world of the comedy festival, stand up is the primary solo genre. Every now and then however, there is a solo show that defies genrifying. Like Toby Hadoke’s Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf last year, Claudia O’Doherty’s Monster of the Deep 3D tries something completely different.

The publicity tells us that Claudia is the last surviving member of a small colony that lived in a deep-sea habitat called Aquaplex. The show is a lecture about her life in Aquaplex.

Claudia the character is in her 20’s, and was born in Aquaplex and knew nothing of surface life until the day she was saved by an aircraft carrier after the explosion that destroyed her world and all its other inhabitants. 

Look, this may sound like a completely fruit loopy idea, and it is. But it is genius. Claudia is exactly how you would expect a 20 something woman to be who has lived in a rarefied environment and is determined to share it with you, even though as she admits to the audience, the scientists should be doing it, not a dolphin trainer like her. But they’re dead!

This clever show and its subtexts of sinister goings on in Aquaplex, of low social functioning and 70’s time warp fashion, is funny on so many levels. It is original and offbeat, it entertains rather than shocks, and frequently delights.

Claudia O’Doherty is an absolute treat to watch. Her ebullience, ingenuousness and awkwardness are completely convincing but cannot be the true traits of the subversive mind behind this clever show.

For something completely different this comedy fest, don your metaphorical scuba gear and get on down to Club Ivy to swim with the dolphin trainer. It’s a blast!

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