Sikisa is a new name on the comedy scene, but trust me you'll hearing and seeing a lot more of the south Londoner with Barbadian roots. Twerk in Progress, her in-progress version of her debut show Life of the Party, is a winning mixture of autobiography and social comment.
She is an energetic performer and barely pauses for breath in the hour – even in the dance breaks she's exerting herself across the balloon-strewn stage – as she delivers her thoughts on house parties, feminism, dick picks and much more.
Sikisa is, she tells us, the life and soul of parties, and the show is about the house party that she threw after lockdown ended (she wisely took the precaution of throwing at her best friend's house rather than her own). Much of it is deliberately silly – the importance of there being several types of chicken at the party, for instance – but she also uses the set-up to ponder more serious subjects such as race, friendship and the stereotyping that she, as a working-class young black woman, is confronted by every day of her life.
She has an assured delivery for her well constructed gags. Talking about why she loves her home town, she says: “I love Brixton. I can get my nails done, I can get my hair done, I can get my fruit and vegetables, I can see my cousins. All in one shop.” And there's also some dry political comment; she has noticed that white people dance with abandon after a few drinks. “I don't know where you get that freedom from... Probably your ancestors.”
There's a lot of chat about her being single (she's choosy), and in the section about dick pics – and how she turned that back on the men responsible – there's a cracking vibrator gag and a funny but filthy explanation of what her favourite chocolate bars are. You will never think about Twix bars the same way again.
Sikisa (full name Sikisa Bostwick-Barnes) is an immigration lawyer by day, and she draws on that for some audience interaction that shows the daftness of much of the Life in the UK test that immigrants must sit, and I would have liked more of that material. The show feels slightly underdeveloped at times, but overall this is a confident debut.
