Tegan Higginbotham in The City of Love ★★★★

‘Dear Diary. What a night it was. Went to the Comedy Festival. One hilarious show. So many LOLZ.’

Tegan Higginbotham

Greek Centre until April 3

TEGAN Higginbotham is in the mood to celebrate. Not only was this night her 28th birthday, her stand-up show, The City of Love, marks 10 years at the festival.

This routine demonstrates her experience and onstage maturity, anchored on her personal recollections and her attempts to realise childhood dreams. Introspective material is hardly unfamiliar stand-up territory but Higginbotham has us rapt from the start with a charming home video of her as a toddler.

What follows is a personal journey and her goal to visit Paris, but it's much more and is laced with many cracking yarns. The teen diaries were a highlight, if not a bit disturbing.

Her likeability helps, too. Higginbotham is warm, honest and a good story-teller, rarely missing a beat in the hour. And if she did, her ability to ad lib was her safety net.

The City of Love is polished, well structured and well prepared. Well-written too, which is a comedic skill often underestimated. Higginbotham clearly deserves more stars than she gives her dodgy Uber drivers.

Footnote: I know the room is in the Greek Centre, but does the temperature control have to be set at “Athens summer”? I think we all shed a few kilos in the hour.