It would be easy to mistake Mae Martin for a skinny 14-year-old boy but she is, in fact, a skinny 31-year-old Canadian woman who lives in London and, as far as I know, makes a pretty decent living from stand-up comedy.
In one way I'm not surprised and in another way I'm astonished at her success.
Even a non-English speaker watching her act would, as soon as she walked on stage, recognise her as a talented and experienced performer. She looks the part, she sounds the part and she acts the part. That's probably because she is very much the part.
An English speaker watching her act would not only recognise her talent as a performer but would immediately be drawn in by what she was saying and the way she was saying it. She is immediately engaging, immediately likeable and immediately interesting.
Having said all that, I'm going to suggest that if her act were to be transcribed into a written document and posted under a pseudonym in the BCG critique section, every response would ask (either politely or impolitely) where the funny stuff was. Why? Because so very very little of what she says would be funny on paper.
Please don't take this as a negative review. The girl is talented - there's absolutely no doubt about that.
I like her: she's been successful in comedy since she was 13 years old and she continues to do just fine in the business. If one thing's for sure, it's probably that she doesn't need career advice from me.
What fascinates me about her is that she appears to be the living embodiment of style over substance.
If she ever teams up with a top-class comedy writer, she'll probably conquer the world.