You For Coffee?

Minutes before You For Coffee is due to start, Elise Harris takes to the stage to ensure that the capacity audience has come to see her show. Our intentions confirmed, she cheerfully allows us to talk amongst ourselves while she and Edmund Cox prepare for their performance. 

The fundamental problem with Cox's set is that he portrays a dislikeable character and has no material. Initial riffs on his surname fall flat before the sophisticated lunchtime audience which struggles to determine whether or not he intentionally forgets to bring his props on stage for misjudged comic effect. After two thirds of his allocated stage time, there is nothing left for him to do but apologise. 

Was Cox's set an act of sabotage? By the time Harris performs hers, the gig is lost. It's a shame, as she has some original ideas and an interesting, slightly nervy stage presence. The BBC Upstaged winner's routines on worms, spam emails and her ambidexterity provide the audience with some relief, but it's not worth wading through the first half of You For Coffee to reach them.