By Lisa Clark
Brynley Stent is not a household name in Australia yet, though fans of NZ Taskmaster will know her, but she’s bound to make a big splash here. She’s certainly one of the funniest comedians I’ve seen to come out of New Zealand and they’re mostly pretty good.
There is no audience banter or small talk, Brynley gets right into the business at hand of making her audience fall about laughing. Brynley tackles the mundane frustrations of life such as self check out and all the small social faux pas we fear making and makes them epic, really capturing the inner excruciating pain and taking the ideas to places you don’t expect.
Soft carnage is not a standup show as such, it is so much more. This show has everything; running gags, surprise story arcs, a nemesis, endearing hand drawn backdrops, magnificent props and grandiose impressions that all come at you from weirder angles than you would expect. Brynley throws herself into everything with great gusto and appears quite exhausted towards the end.
Soft Carnage has Award winning show written all over it. It’s highly polished, dealing with modern life and issues including the horrors of A.I. It has brilliant tech and BIG props that had to be hauled over the ditch for us. The dark humour is unexpected from this seemingly cheery, breezy young woman, but there are hints at a real heart breaking backstory, and yet there are the most gut aching belly laughs throughout the show that had me breathless and some members of the audience I was in just fell apart.
It is not at all surprising that Brynley was awarded one the top comedy award in New Zealand, the Billy T award. Soft Carnage completely blew me away, but it is surprising how small her room is. I am raving about this show to anyone who comes within my vicinity, it will sell out, so you should buy tickets now.
Brynley Stent performs Soft Carnage at the Victoria Hotel at 9.10/8.10 until April 20
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/soft-carnage/