Note: This review is from the 2012 Fringe

Comedy / 45 min / Free / 18+

Showing @ Banshee Labyrinth, until 25 Aug (not 20), 19.50

We all know those people who try as hard as possible to “fit in”, yet in doing so make themselves look even more odd. Pattie Brewster is such a person. Friendship Venture takes the form of a presentation, utilising slides, videos and audience participation. Amy Hoggart performs Pattie with a bizarre sort of surreal-realism, embodying all those slightly unusual tics and mannerisms, instantly recognisable yet so very strange. The live portions are fairly well written and cleverly performed but the best moments are reserved for the videos, with Pattie unleashed on the world. There is something inexplicably hilarious about a grown man being intimidated by a pint-sized girl with a seemingly enormous microphone. The whole thing is extremely unpolished, but definitely funnier and more endearing for it.