By Elyce Phillips
The day before heading down to Melbourne for the Comedy Festival, Gen Fricker’s dad accidentally dropped a wardrobe on her, injuring her shoulder and leaving her arm in a sling. This sounds like the kind of ailment that could ruin a show for a musical comedian, but with her fabulous storytelling skills and deft one-handed keyboard playing, Monsterpussy is a solid hour of laughs.
Seeing as she’s unable to play guitar at the moment, Fricker requests the help of someone in the audience to do the guitar portion of the show. A suspiciously confident dude volunteered – perhaps a budding local comic who had got wind of the audience participation part of the show – and proceeded to bust out what he said was Radiohead but I am fairly certain was not Radiohead. I’m a pretty big Radiohead fan (i.e. a huge nerd) and I don’t recall the word ‘hymen’ being in any of their lyrics. Having weirded Fricker out, his minute of fame was up. The man returned to his seat and we were treated to the far superior musical talents of Fricker.
Monsterpussy has no grand moral, no overriding theme. The last year of Fricker’s life has been chaotic and the show reflects that. One thing that stands out above all else is Fricker’s ability to endure. Despite upheavals in her life, injury and illness, she has continued on, put together a great show and performs it like a total badarse. The songs are hilarious – the stripped-back keys sound really great. The stories are heart-wrenching and occasionally terrifying, but above all, they are also hilarious. Fricker’s humour has a dark edge that works well with her self-depreciating delivery style. There are no big punchlines here, rather a steady ebb of consistent laughs.
Gen Fricker is super talented and resilient as all get-out. She may have had a few set-backs, but Monsterpussy is an absolute winner.
Gen Fricker – Monsterpussy is on at the Portland Hotel until April 19
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/monsterpussy-gen-fricker