Nina Conti is a daring comedian with an ever-inventive mind

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“I’m naturally quite shy,” says Nina Conti at the start of an hour in which she will befriend, mock and corral into ludicrous situations a series of audience volunteers. Well, I say she: often it’s her right-hand man, her ventriloquist’s doll Monk, who cuts through the guff and mocks ventriloquism or Conti herself. “Oh just do a Ted talk and call it a day,” he moans when she gets earnest for a moment. “Zero in on her lips,” he says to the cameraperson making sure every gesture of woman and beast is beamed onto the huge screen.
Conti has been so good for so long that we are in danger of taking her for granted. And if there was a point at which she was trying too hard to experiment, in the past few years she has found a formula she can both sustain and find new fun with every night. She banters with Monk and, as ever, does a sensational job of looking like a smilingly passive passenger in their partnership.
• Nina Conti interview: I murder other ventriloquists in their sleep
More than half of the show, though, sidelines Monk and turns people into her puppets. Conti has a rack of masks upstage. She finds volunteers, sticks masks on them and has conversations with them. She operates their jaws with a hand-held pump on a wire, voicing them, caricaturing them. They play along. And something magical happens, almost every time: something spontaneous, liberty-taking, abrasive yet inclusive.
Yes, as with a magician’s act, finding volunteers and getting them on and off stage brings an element of admin to the evening. And show-offs can derail things, as happened on my night in the sequence in which Monk offers psychotherapy to all comers from behind a screen.
And yet, also on my night, Conti somehow went from hearing about a long-distance relationship from one volunteer to bringing five of her friends up on stage. Everyone played along, while getting — pleasurably — bested by their hostess. And by the time they were all forming a human aeroplane, flying to Australia, it was nothing less than a gag-heavy theatrical happening. All held together by an outwardly demure, secretly daring comedian whose mind contains multitudes. ★★★★☆To August 25, pleasance.co.uk; touring January 16 to March 6, ninaontour.com
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