People may remember Riki Lindhome as the ‘God’s loophole’ girl with the guitar, but in her debut hour, ‘Dead Inside,’ she tackles a topic much more vulnerable than anal sex: her ‘fertility journey’. When Riki enters the stage to an eager audience — much of the crowd likely know her from Garfunkel and Oates, Wednesday, and other high-profile projects — she jumps right into the story of how she became a mother.

Off the bat, a show that’s supposed to feel more like a conversation feels a bit like a student’s presentation. Granted, the ‘student’ is hilarious and charming, but the direction of ‘Dead Inside’ creates a barrier between Riki and the audience. Riki wears a body mic instead of the traditional stand-up comedy wired microphone, making ‘Dead Inside’ resemble a TED Talk instead of a comedy show. 

Luckily, however, Riki’s content and her story’s delivery are spot-on. It’s refreshing to see Riki’s transformation from the girl who sang a song called ‘The BJ Song’ on an album called Secretions into a woman trying to start a family. The story alone may seem just like any other Fringe tale, but Riki uses her story to comment on what it means to be a woman in 2024, while managing to keep it funny and light.

Riki’s promo asks the question, ‘Can infertility be funny?’ Based on ‘Dead Inside’, the answer is an unequivocal yes. The show revolves around a seemingly inaccessible subject matter, and is yet, completely relatable as Riki ties in her love of musicals, romance and dirty jokes. While the raunchy Riki from Garfunkel and Oates is still there, the vulnerable topic brings out a softer side of her many fans hadn’t seen before.

A couple of artistic choices just don’t work — the use of the projector is a significant portion of the show, showing videos, photos, and even slideshows as the backdrops to songs, but it was also, at times, distracting. Also, Riki’s movement to the center of the stage and back whenever introducing a video clip or photo feels repetitive without a purpose. 

From a directorial standpoint, ‘Dead Inside’ could be stronger, but as a written piece, it is moving, innovative, and genuinely funny. Riki’s clever lyricism has only matured with her subject matter. Her theme of loneliness while trying to have a baby mirrors her theme of doing this show alone, when she’s so accustomed to performing alongside Kate Micucci. But her song from the perspective of the Baroness in The Sound of Music as a break-up anthem proves that ‘Dead Inside’ is not just about motherhood and infertility, it’s about the female experience as a whole. 

‘Dead Inside‘ is at Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath until Sun 25 Aug (except Wed 14) at 17:00