Framed as a book launch for the second instalment of her autobiography, this show features readings that trace the latter half of Tina C’s life, interspersed with ‘hits’ from her illustrious career as a country singer. The character is now so well developed that the portrayal seems effortless, and I can easily imagine chancing upon a Tina C concert played straight, and just thinking it was a rather good country singer, singing some pretty good songs… from a distance. But this is comedy and Tina is an invented character that functions to satirise the self-absorption of celebrities, and spoof country music genre.

Tina is so glad to be back in ‘Scotchland’ (‘Is it a country or a territory?), to share her personal journey ‘from girl to woman to brand to ideology’. Some of the humour is chuckle-inducing crudity, such as the song title No Dick’s as Hard as My Life, but there are also some wonderfully imagined back-stories. And because the character is so convincing, with no discernible trace of the performer showing through, it is easy to imagine that this is just a person recounting events from her life, off the cuff. But, of course, it is written fiction; a finely crafted imagining of Tina’s life, peppered with clever wordplay and witticisms that make the whole performance kind of deceptively clever. I’m not sure if there really is a book, but based on the extracts performed I’d buy one.

She has a song called If You Can’t Live Without Me, How Come You Weren’t Dead When We Met? and an intricate and ultimately hilarious explanation of why the song about her foray into politics was entitled Tick My Box rather than Punch My Hole. Alongside the well-made gags, there are subtle references to the act of pretence, such as her offhand observation of how weird it seemed that a bearded drag artist won the Eurovision song context. Any aspiring drag artistes (or actors for that matter) would certainly learn much from the attention to detail, the depth of the characterisation and also the affection for the character. For all her self-centred ignorance, Tina C comes across as a likeable character whose attempts at self-expression can be strangely moving. At the end there is one song that seems free of jokes, when Christopher Green allows Tina the opportunity to be entirely herself, and as with all the musical numbers, it is well composed and finely sung.

I first saw Tina C in an evening show at the Spiegeltent, which seemed a perfect fit of entertainer and venue. This year s/he is located up two flights of stairs in a satellite venue that takes a bit more effort to discover, but hopefully the crowds will make the trip because this is an accomplished artist who deserves a full house.