Richardson's Creep Turns Comedian DMs Into Edinburgh Show
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- Harriet Richardson's debut hour "Creep" runs at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 30 August, reviewing as a "scandalous delve into shame and desire" built around a comedian's unsolicited DMs.
- The comedian's opening message referenced Richardson's 2024 viral piece "100 Dates," a Valentine's Day online speed-dating project in which she analyzed her relationship with infatuation.
- Richardson spent six months tracking the comedian down on a dating app and played his profile song hundreds of times, eventually locating his eBay account.
- The flirtation escalated to the explicit line "Do you want to see my trophy?" and saucy snaps before a frantic voice note from the comedian's manager abruptly ended the exchange.
- Richardson supplements her storytelling with a PowerPoint presentation of "receipts," including a blink-and-you'll-miss-it flash of an explicit image.
- The reviewer praises Richardson as a "natural and deeply charismatic storyteller" but notes the hour unfolds as a chronological debrief rather than a traditional standup set packed with crafted jokes.
- The show surfaces an unresolved question about performance and the gap between the selves we present online and off, a tension sharpened by Richardson's background as a performance artist who turns feelings into material.
Why it matters: The reviewer explicitly frames Richardson's debut as a chronological confessional debrief rather than a traditional standup hour of crafted jokes, a tension sharpened by her performance-art background of turning personal obsession into material — the show surfaces the question of where confession ends and comedy begins without resolving it.
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