It was back in March that I first saw Tiffany when she was performing at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh and I was really impressed with her as a performer and with her material. I was pleased to see that she was doing her own solo show in Fringe 2009, as I was keen to see more.

In a room that resembled a sauna, bright and breezy this South London girl hit the stage of the sell-out show and took our minds off the uncomfortable conditions as she performed for her allotted hour.

Her show title, Along Came a Spider, was inspired from an incident that occurred at a gig last year and she weaved her web as the arachnid itself and ensnared the audience, as her prey, to do with, as she wanted.

The story of her life was the essence of the piece, how she has ended up where she is currently, and this is interwoven with many varied yet amusing spider reference points before telling some more of her life.

This lady has had a very interesting youth, and she related incidents that were poignant at times, intriguing at others, often self-deprecating, but always funny.

She is as good at delivering the material as she is at writing it, and she seems to be enjoying the performance as much as we enjoyed listening. Ms Stevenson has oodles of stage presence, great comic timing and for me at least should go far.

There has been a fair bit of anti- female bias in the press recently, inferring that women were not as funny as men. I wish some who had made these comments had been at the gig I saw, then maybe they would change their minds a little.

Hopefully the award panel judges will put her under close scrutiny this year and just maybe agree that she is worthy of one of their accolades. Certainly for my money she is.

*****

Tiffany Stevenson: Along Came a Spider

Company: - Jeremy Meadows for Something for the Weekend

Venue: - Gilded Balloon Wee Room V 14

Dates: - 5 to 31 August 2009 ( not 18)

Times: - 17.45 to 18.45

Fringe Programme Page: - p 106   (c16)