Laughs aplenty as Celeste Barber comes to Birmingham Town Hall - review

She’s the Australian author, actor and comic who has spent the last decade making quite a name for herself in the comedy world.

But it is her skill for parody and clever use of social media in the last few years that has seen her fame sky-rocket. One of her first posts featured one picture of a super-fit Britney Spears executing a perfect handstand alongside another of a floundering Celeste barely lifting one foot above a knee. Her journey on Instagram had begun.

Six million followers later - two of them my daughters, who couldn’t wait to show me this comedy queen, one of them me, who was smitten - and she is in the middle of a tour of America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Her show is pure brilliance. “Where are my drunk mothers”, she demanded as she took to the stage in a polka-dot dress and sparkly trainers, moving like a dynamo across the stage. Yes, the audience was largely female, and mostly young, but she builds a rapport with everyone.

Her tales took us back to her childhood and the inspiration for her handstand post ( while the popular girls were gliding their feet into position against the school wall she was cadging cakes); her envy of other girls’ flirting techniques; her thoughts on the hot and beautiful ( they just look lost) and ‘what it’s like to have a husband so much hotter than you’.

One of the biggest laughs of the night went to how she would like to send him out on a skateboard with all the children in tow to buy milk, so it would be impossible for anyone else to seduce him. Another was for the X-rated story of a conversation with model Rosie Huntinton-Whiteley about what she would like to do with said husband.

Celeste peppered her hilarious and self-deprecating reflections with favoured shots from her Instagram posts: a model effortlessly pulling herself out of a swimming pool in one fluid movement and Celeste throwing a leg over; a skinny beauty dancing in the skimpiest of lacy lingerie and Celeste grinning in her granny pants; a woman wearing a mesh veil and Celeste sporting something you would put tangerines in.

The whole evening was witty, warm and clever, posed questions about image and beauty but most of all, gave us a chance to meet our heroine.

And she even - rather fittingly for a social media leader - took a photo of all of us at the end. Now, watch what you do with that picture Celeste.