Hayley Ellis: Stop Showing Off

Stand-up comedy show by Hayley Ellis, staged at Monkey Barrel Comedy in Edinburgh, which looks back on a girlband career that never took off, told with comic nostalgia.

Stop Showing Off is a stand-up show in which Hayley Ellis revisits a girlband that the performer joined in the 1990s, when success seemed certain. The hour asks what life might look like had the band become a hit, and imagines several alternative futures, from a settled family routine to a career in wellness, before returning to the less glamorous reality.

Hayley Ellis covers body image, the pages of Smash Hits magazine and an indoor skydiving mishap, presenting the material as a retrospective built on tragic nostalgia. The show involves no singing and no dancing, and every ticket includes a seat.

The show takes place at Monkey Barrel Comedy, which The List describes as a year-round Edinburgh institution. The club has been named Scotland's Best Comedy Venue by the Chortle Awards since 2020.