Review by Dominic Corr

Assembly George Square Studios: Tickets

You’ll not often find yourself in the max-security wing of a Superdrug on a Sunday afternoon. Well, maybe you do. Holly Stars certainly does. Audiences join the comic and writer right after she’s been nabbed for nicking a load of lipsticks, and her usual tricks aren’t going to get them out of this one. Helping themselves to the staff biscuit tin and copies of Take a Break, Stars shares with audiences just how she ended up in this mess and how there’s more to a petty crime than meets the eyeliner.

A story without shame (brilliantly) makes up Justice for Holly – both in their experiences with a bit of shoplifting and their experiences growing up in the North of England. A mixture of storytelling and traditional stand-up, it’s an easy-going show which doesn’t fling or catapult the audience around, a refreshing pace for those tired of the jam-packed mile-a-minute energy of other stand-up routines. It enables Stars to take stories down longer paths, source out better punchlines, and deviate if there’s a rumbling that the audience enjoys a particular set-up or isn’t quite following.

Anyone acquainted with Stars’ written work, Death Drop or A Christmas Carole, will recognise that Stars’Stars’ delivery style is as deadpan as their scripting. For some audiences, it would be easy to mistake this for a lack of energy, especially as some anecdotes and stories wander through some unnecessary aisles to browse for additional gags. Aside from that, audiences’ callbacks and the shade of matter-of-fact all strike at a very UK-centric charm and delivery and mean that the occasional dip into dark humour hits the mark and soars without feeling too left-field.

A story of survival and shoplifting, Stars’ story is less a redemption arc and more a celebration of petty crimes, of taking the smaller victories where you can – and never trusting Posh Sue. It’s cathartic in a peculiar way, where humour brings the audience together rather than separates them with berating gags or endless punchlines that litter the floor. The stripped-back stories and more “mundane” set-up mean that Justice for Holly is far more relatable than most stand-up routines, nostalgic and unexpectedly comforting.

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