A stand-up comedian, who last year challenged herself to find a husband, is raising smiles with her new Edinburgh Fringe show.
After successfully landing the perfect man, Samantha Hannah, from Perth, decided to spend a year searching for happiness.
Her new show is a comic dive into the world of self-help books, relaxation techniques and yoga.
There is also a serious message behind the laughs, as the 33-year-old takes time during her set to remember her brother David who died suddenly in 2015, just weeks after he spoke publicly about his struggles with legal highs.
She decided, in his memory, to donate some of the money made from her month-long show to the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH).
“We lost David a few years ago, and that is one of things I talk about during the show,” she said.
“He wasn’t always happy and I wanted to do something that would benefit people who are maybe going through what he was going though.
“But it is still a fun, positive show and I think people are taking away a lot of different things from it.”
The free show runs at noon every day until August 25, at the capital’s Cabaret Voltaire.
Samantha said: “Last year, I did a show about trying to find a husband. That was when I met Toby, and things have been going really well.
“I wrote that show because I felt there was all this pressure on me to find someone. But now that I have found someone, I realised that the pressure doesn’t go away. Everyone wants to know if we’ve moved in together, if we’re engaged. When are we having children?
“These days there’s just so much pressure on people to be happy. There’s pressure to live up to the expectations we see on social media.”
She said: “I had this idea that I should go on this journey, like I did before, but this time not to find a husband, but to find complete and utter happiness.
“I thought it was going to be chance to poke fun at the industry, and debunk some myths. But I found that it really worked. It’s been an amazing experience for me, I was a bit taken aback.”
Although Samantha doesn’t address mental health directly in the show, there is an underlying message about the importance of staying positive. “Of all the techniques, I found that being honest can be really cathartic,” she said. “There’s a couple of moments where I divulge things I maybe shouldn’t divulge.”
David died in October 2015. In September that year, he took part in a Perth city centre protest against legal highs.
He said at the time: “One of the reasons I took legal highs was for pain relief. However, I came to realise there is real harm to them.”
