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Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · Marjolein Robertson

Marj

Marjolein Robertson

YouTube · 2025 · 48 min

A storytelling stand-up hour about relationships and Shetland folklore.

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Marjolein Robertson starts with a lighthearted, slightly strange persona, telling stories about taking acid, playing the fiddle, and studying seamanship in the Shetland Islands. But she quickly drops the house lights to tell a traditional Shetland folktale about a selkie losing her skin, using the myth as a parallel for her own experience with an emotionally abusive relationship. It is a striking structural choice, shifting from whimsical, oddball stand-up to a quiet, stark disclosure of trauma.\n\nFilmed at The Stand Comedy Club in Glasgow and released on YouTube in 2025, ‘Marj’ represents the first installment in an autobiographical stand-up trilogy (spanning ‘Marj’, ‘O’, and ‘Lein’) addressing her mind, body, and soul. Originally debuting at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe to critical praise, the hour established Robertson as a singular voice on the UK circuit, earning her award nominations and helping her secure a nomination for the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Comedy Award in 2025. She balances the heavier material with callbacks to previous shows, her nephew’s taste in dungeon-core music, and linguistic deep-dives into Shetland dialect.

The set list

4 bits

  1. The folklore of the Selkie Wife whose skin is stolen by a fisherman

    Used as an allegorical device woven throughout the show to mirror the dynamics of coercive control and loss of identity in an abusive relationship.

  2. Procuring the morning-after pill

    Cascades into a reverse-chronological retelling of encounters, including a tryst with a French man, aiding a homeless man moving his bed, and witnessing a piece of the moon fall in a park.

  3. Relief that fish do not possess hands

    An absurd, recurring observation on animal anatomy and human vulnerability.

  4. Calling her former partner 'The Fisherman'

    Contrast between romanticized terminology and the unglamorous reality of suffering from an anal fissure when they met.

How it plays

Tone
Surreal, cathartic, emotionally raw, and darkly comic.
On stage
Impish, charismatic, and deceptively naive, projecting an authentic, otherworldly Shetlander charm that oscillates between lighthearted absurdity and soul-baring vulnerability.
Pace
Tightly controlled momentum moving from high-energy, playful surrealism to abrupt, deliberate decelerations marked by quiet reflection and emotional intensity.
About
domestic abuse and coercive control, Shetland folklore and heritage, relationships and dating, healing and the mind

What the critics said

Universally praised by critics as an ambitious, spellbinding hour that expertly synthesizes traditional folklore, sharp stand-up comedy, and harrowing personal revelation.

In the room: Rapt and intensely engaged, moving between roaring laughter and pin-drop silence.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedy.co.uk, standupd.com, letterboxd.com, medialib.net, chortle.co.uk, list.co.uk, theqr.co.uk, theskinny.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org, marjoleinrobertson.com, sundaypost.com, scotsman.com.

Backstory

Conceived as the first installment of a deeply personal trilogy exploring the mind (followed by 'O' on the body and 'Lein' on the soul). Written with input from a therapist to ensure safe framing and signposting for survivors, the show processes Robertson's personal experience of domestic abuse and coercive control.

Details

Released
Taped
The Stand Comedy Club, Glasgow
Runtime
48 min
Where
YouTube
Director
Mason Stade, Anne McSorley
Honors
Nominee: Best Show, (ISH) Edinburgh Comedy Awards (2023)
Topics

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