Lara Ricote's new show Inkling, at Monkey Barrel Comedy in Edinburgh, is a rich and enjoyable leap forward from her already-excellent first two shows. The Mexican-American comic is in as endearing fettle as ever, her urge to communicate bubbling over in a set about divining the messages life puts your way, however indecipherable they can sometimes appear.
A hymn to belief over rationalism
The show begins at the oracle at Delphi with a hymn to belief over rationalism. “This is a show about mystery and messages,” says Ricote, and if we only understand 65% of it, that need be no bar to our appreciation. There is truth in that – I often felt I was chasing along in the show's slipstream. It flits and fizzes between narrative strands, Ricote abstracting her voice into burbling, and blurting water over herself, for at least at first minimal apparent reason.
Signals and self-discovery
There is reason, but it is up to us to make the connections, while Ricote recounts the end of a long-term relationship, and the beginning of a friendship with another comic who, like her, is hard of hearing. How does that condition relate to her sense of two-thirds understanding as the golden mean? And why is she so down on sign language? A further encounter, in which a man tries to discuss a painting with her in a museum, dramatises her interest in the signals life sends us, and her difficulty in always perceiving them.
Great command and goofy amusement
Ricote weaves these sections with great command (“blackout!”), but also a goofy amusement at her presumption in doing so. This show about maturing doesn't stint on tomfoolery and great jokes – see Ricote deploying her whole body to imitate “split-tongue guy”, or the very funny establishing shot she performs to evoke New York City. But Inkling also lets us watch her grow up as if in real time, as her confidence grows in interpreting the world for herself, and as she inches towards a fuller embrace of her hard-of-hearing identity. The sense, and it's an exciting one, is both of a person finding themselves, and an artist too. At Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh, until 30 August.
