Words: Elodie Marriott
Image: Steve Best

5 stars

Just like her unscripted show, Conti’s monkey is inevitably unpredictable. He does things, and says things, that cause her to double over with laughter. After over 20 years together, she still doesn’t seem to know what he’s thinking. What his next move is going to be. This wouldn’t be so strange with a feral animal, but Monkey is a puppet, and he’s entirely controlled by Conti’s hand.

With her sweet demeanour and giggly stage presence, ventriloquist Nina Conti lures audience members up on stage and fits them with lower face masks that “create monsters who don’t give a f— about tomorrow”. Much like a persuasive siren, Conti has an alluring voice. In fact, she has many.

Starting with one person, then two, and finally a family of four, she moves the jaws on the masks to comically converse, speaking fluently with a variety of accents and voice colours. Influenced by the participant’s body language, she invents love stories for couples and sings impromptu quartets based on what little information monkey has interrogated out of them in earlier therapy sessions. Balancing hysterical conversations between five, Conti deserves to win gold in mental and vocal gymnastics.

Whose Face Is It Anyway is a show with equal amounts of talent and wit. It’s one that leaves you with a deep admiration for Nina Conti and an aching body from an hour of laugh-induced full-body convulsions.

Nina Conti: Whose Face Is It Anyway?
Pleasance Courtyard – Grand,
19:30
Aug 6, 8-12, 14-18, 20-25,