Lorna Rose Treen, who won the best joke of the fringe award two years ago with a cheetah/cheater pun, returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with a new show, 24 Hour Diner People. The character comic presents a set of surreal characters and sharp one-liners, all set in an open-all-hours cafe. The Sun newspaper previously claimed her award-winning joke 'killed comedy', a comment Treen references at the start of her new show.
The show features a waitress who eats her tips, a trucker with impossibly long arms, and a teenage girl's libidinous fantasies about prom. Treen also involves audience members, such as in a sketch about a wannabe Bonnie and Clyde plotting a diner heist. Unlike her previous show Skin Pigeon, Treen appears from behind her disguises to comment on the chaos, adding to the generous spirit of the performance.
While some strands of the show do not reach satisfactory conclusions and a couple of musical numbers don't play to Treen's strengths, the physical comedy and throwaway one-liners are strong. Treen proves that comedy, and hers in particular, is very much alive.
