one4review | On 09, Aug 2025

 

It’s mid-afternoon, the sun was shining, do I really want to sit in a basement in the Old Town (again) was the question. Fortunately, the answer was yes. Had I not, I would have missed out on a really good show.

Resplendent in pink, Diona Doherty enters her venue with a smile as bright as her jacket, puts people at ease with a little getting to know you opening, explains the title of her show and how it relates to her life.

Kids. She and her husband have recently had two, by IVF. Now aged two and four, she muses that they have hidden her mojo and her abs apparently and she is on a quest to getting them back.

Diona is Irish and is enjoying being well away from her kids, there are more, she is part of a blended family, and part of this is by entertaining one and all. There is plenty of material about the children, the trials, and costs, of IVF but she is not a one subject comic. Far from it.

Games of her childhood, how to celebrate leaving primary school, becoming involved in pop culture reality shows, recreating expensive shoes with stationery products, post-natal depression are but a few, and with voice notes included in some of the topics, the pace is just right.

There were plenty of laughs throughout the show and loads of smiling faces at the end of the gig. Always a good sign.

****

Reviewed by Geoff

Monkey Barrel 2

14.55 to15.55

Until 24^th August (not 13^th)