Review: Harriet Dyer: Skin

If the secret to comedy success is finding your audience, Harriet Dyer casts a wide net this year. Do you have skin? She asks at the top of the show. Then this show is for you. 

What follows, though, has a more nuanced relationship to the body’s largest organ – across an accomplished and enjoyable hour, Dyer explores what it means to be comfortable in your own skin and the journey that led her to become comfortable in hers. 

That journey does not necessarily make for obvious stand-up fodder, with tales of poverty, drug addiction and mental illness forming the basis of a story about a misspent adolescence in rural Cornwall. But in Dyer’s capable hands, the subject matter is handled with a mostly well-balanced mix of empathy and humour; key characters are painted vividly and anecdotes ably weaved together to build an effective narrative, even if its relationship to the central premise isn’t always entirely clear. 

Dyer’s delightfully chaotic delivery sees her digress from the plot at the sound of a rustling sweet wrapper or the sight of an audience member’s face, but skilful crowd work and ad libs just add to the charm. This is a solid hour of stand-up from a comic who not only has skin but is clearly comfortable in it too.