Review: LARA RICOTE: LITTLE TINY WET SHOW (BAPTISM), Soho Theatre

“The one thing that matters in a relationship”

Walking into Lara Ricote: Little Tiny Wet Show (baptism), you are greeted by a collection of small cardboard gravestones, each having a nonsense name on it. Ricote enters the stage wearing a white dress, singing “Let It Be” with lyrics that make no sense before announcing that the song came to her in a dream and she’s hoping to have “Mrs. Elliott” rap on the next part of the song. 

Ricote then introduces herself, telling the audience that she is hard of hearing and ensuring that yes, that is her actual voice. We’re also told another interesting fact about Ricote - she has what she likes to call a “Buttcrack Gap” - it’s exactly what it sounds like. From here, Ricote beings her audience interaction, asking us for a range of consonants and vowels before revealing that we have created our own collective name!

Returning to her personal life, Ricote tells us about her partner, Fernando, who has a “complementary disability” to her - he has no sense of smell. But, even with these complementary attributes, Ricote reveals that the two have been having some relationship issues, which leads her to the main theme of the show - what matters most in relationships. She begins by stating an observation she’s made at a comedian, that 50% of the audience has come to the show, while the other 50% have been brought, correctly identifying one of the “brought” audience members and working to win them over by discussing Triangle of Sadness.

Ricote and Fernando are working on their relationship, with Fernando being willing to give up everything to move to the Netherlands while Ricote goes around the world pursuing her career in comedy. In terms of attachment styles, Fernando is anxious while Ricote is avoidant, leading to some complications in terms of how to balance their relationship out, as pointed out to them by their couples therapist. There is a powerful aspect of the show in which Ricote describes the relationship between the audience and the comedian to two people being intimate, describing them both as “being here,” up close and personal with one another and sharing personal parts of themselves that they normally wouldn’t. 

One of the funniest parts of the show is a bit in which Ricote tells us about her and Fernando going to adopt a dog, specifically one of the Bulgarian dogs that you see in videos online walking around the street, “covered in oil.” It’s a fantastic segment that has what might be my favourite joke in the show - “Four baby dog shoes for sale, never worn,” a reference to the classic six-word story, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” 

It was a strangely quiet crowd for a Saturday night, which did take away from the show a bit as it is quite interaction-dependent. In one section where we were asked to come up with a joke, one word at a time, there were several moments of awkward silence that took away from the pacing of the show. Sometimes the segments go on for too long as well, which takes away from the impact of the jokes. There was also an anti-asexual joke, which was quite disappointing compared to the rest of the sex positive show. 

As the show draws to a close, so too does the relationship between Ricote and the audience, so she presents a eulogy, referring to us as our collective name one last time and making callbacks to the moments of audience interaction that had gone on throughout the show. 

Lara Ricote: Little Tiny Wet Show (baptism) is an interesting hour of comedy that explores a range of relationships and what makes them successful, including the comedian’s relationship with the audience and vice versa. 

Lara Ricote: Little Tiny Wet Show (baptism) runs until 2 March 2024 at Soho Theatre.

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