By Colin Flaherty
Jenny’s Travels follows Jenny Tian as she embarks on a rite of passage for many comedians, leaving the rather limited career opportunities of Australia behind to seek their fortunes overseas. A long held wish to visit the United States was hit with administration issues and a pandemic which eventually led to her moving to London. We travel with her via this collection of amusing stories.
The anecdotes themselves cover familiar topics of people leaving the nest that makes them immensely relatable. We hear of her very protective mother’s disapproval of her heading to such a dangerous place. A story of settling for a peculiar housemate will click with everyone who has cohabited with a weirdo.
The show sometimes drifts off on asides that have a logic to them as they often clarify the main story. Others tales are inserted just for the hell of it, such as her need to explain why she’s freezing her eggs. Similarly an extended routine about intimate encounters feels a little shoehorned into the narrative but wins over the crowd regardless with its titillating shock of such racy material coming from the mouth of this nice young woman.
Audience interaction at the top of the show asks if anyone has moved their lives overseas. This resulted in some fascinating information from a gentleman who’d moved to Australia from North Korea via South Korea on this particular night. She added some witty quips but didn’t go much deeper. This seems as if it will have the same impact if it had just been a rhetorical question. Perhaps modern audiences have been trained to expect some crowd work in every show.
Jenny is a delightful performer who keeps the audience entranced throughout. This is a solid hour of storytelling stand up that has won over many fans as the packed Saturday night show, will attest.
Jenny’s Travels is on at the Melbourne Town Hall until April 20
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/jenny-s-travels/