Michelle de Swarte

Fate seems to have conspired to make Michelle De Swarte a comedian. Life has handed her plenty of material to work with, being as she is a Jewish-Jamaican bisexual stoner from Brixton who spent some time as an A-list model, made a fortune and went broke after snorting all her cash. Oh, and she's funny.

This is a pretty testing gig for any comedian. The venue is just the corner of a pub with some drunk builders singing on the other side, while a couple in the front row take real exception to De Swarte saying "big black cock" before the watershed. De Swarte deals with the upset couple with compassion, the builders with some scathing put downs. The woman knows how to handle a crowd.

Her 25 minute set is too short to make a firm judgement about her, but the glimpse we see is incredibly promising. De Swarte rolls through her life story with disarming honesty, and she doesn't just settle for the shocking details of her life but really punches every bit to get the biggest possible laugh. There's incredible potential in De Swarte and frankly it will be a bit of shock if she doesn't become a star.