By Lisa Clark
Queensland comic Grace Jarvis is a bright, giggly, charming comedian who is having a great time on stage telling some surprisingly dark stories, with a mischievous glint in her eye and the audience is swept along laughing like drains.
Being young, unsurprisingly, Grace’s comedy mostly revolves around growing up in regional Queensland, her family, high school experiences and dating. Topics Grace has the audience laughing about include racism, bullying, drug taking, self harm, self hatred, hard core porn and Taylor Swift vs Billy Joel. There is an especially eye opening section about the new online porn generation of young men, in particular, and their alarming expectations of what sex involves but Grace is so delightfully disarming and having such a great time on stage, that you barely have a chance to be shocked or disturbed while you are gasping and laughing.
Graceās humour is all about being the outsider; about coming out as gay and as autistic. Seeing other people from a different perspective is always a good place for a comedian and Grace is able to find the laughs in all the craziness of the world. But underneath it all is quite a lot of darkness that stems from some heavy bullying at an all-girls conservative private school, where even the teachers are bullies. I got the vibe that there were many other āoutsidersā in the audience who were definitely on board with where she was coming from as she got a great laugh from a joke about how hard it is, for people with genuine need, to find a good psychologist.
There are unsurprising references to pop culture throughout, including Grace’s love of the X Files. She has a whole section in the show about a teen film called Tall GirlĀ and how it was supposed to be anti-bullying and self-affirming but provided no solace and probably made her feel worse.Ā (I had to watch it and it is indeed horrific despite some great comedic actors I admire being involved)
Grace Jarvis originally caught my attention when she appeared on some live comedy podcasts, showing off her sharp comedy chops and Iām pleased to discover that she can hold her own for a full hour and is a delight to hang out with. Credit also to her director Laura Davis, as this is a very well thought out and executed hour of standup comedy.
Grace Jarvis – This Is The Last Goldfish That I Am Going to Eat For You is on at Trades Hall every night except Wednesdays