Certain comedians are heavy on artifice: you know there’s a routine, a persona, and you’re going to get it on every night of the tour. With Celya AB, there’s a rawness that feels a little different.
It’s not, of course. The jokes are carefully calibrated and she knows exactly what she’s doing, but that doesn’t stop her gently faltering delivery creating a connection that is both vulnerable and brave simultaneously.
This latest show, the culmination of 10 years touring the UK, has many apparent topics: her therapist’s advice to give up stand up, a viral video of an Arsenal celebration parade, the haunting words of relatives and ex-boyfriends. Each is charmingly inserted into your brain, ready to be referenced later for maximum effect. It has a unsteady rhythm, the only reliable note being frequent laughs.
I’ve seen her described as having a razor sharp wit but that’s not quite right. There are plenty of conversational one-liners, brilliantly conceived and cleverly delivered, but it’s more like amputation from a paper cut. You don’t see them coming. The skill is the ambivalence with which the jokes trip from her tongue, seemingly conjured right there.
There’s only night left of this tour so unless you happen to be in Bristol on Sunday you’re unlikely to see this show. But I’ve no doubt that her next will be just as wonderfully, unpredictably, funny.
- Celya AB was at Norwich Theatre Playhouse on 30 October 2026.