By Peter Hodgson
One of the great pleasures of the past few years of Australian comedy has been watching the rise and rise of Frankie McNair. Frankie’s standup? Hilarious. Frankie’s improv? Virtuosic. So when I saw the first hints of what would become Tabitha Booth, I was already all-in. Tabitha has been described as ‘a heavily medicated lounge singer’ that’s probably the best place to start. Tabitha’s in-universe lore includes a stint on a classic sitcom as Long Fork Lady, a prop comedy character stretched (ha!) to the limits, forever trying to break free from a one-gag character that the pubic just won’t let go of. That’s where we found Tabitha at last year’s festival: living in the present day, trying to claw back her identity outside of a lady with a comically long telescoping fork. This year Tabitha takes back to 1969 for The Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour!, placing us right there in the studio as Tabitha bids a bittersweet farewell to her televised variety show.
This is a much bigger production than McNair has previously presented, with a bigger stage, more props, a bigger cast and more stuff, and it also introduces audiences to Isaac Haigh, Tabitha’s TV sidekick and soon-to-be replacement, all warm rapport and Ray Martin hair. Now, there’s a version of this show on YouTube in the form of a fundraising live special for the Tabitha Booth YouTube series The Telling Of The Untold Truth Of Tabitha Booth, and it’s hilarious. But I’m glad I waited until after seeing the MICF version before watching it because Haigh’s character has morphed between then and now as a more sympathetic one. He’s more mindful of Tabitha’s feelings even while taking her job. We don’t see him as someone who is trying to edge her out, but someone who is seizing his career moment just as she would have. It makes Tabitha’s story more tragic: despite all her chemical and emotional freakouts, it’s not really a case of Tabitha losing her TV gig so much as TV just moving on without her.
Special shout-out goes to Matt Jenner, who for most of the show plays a harried stagehand but who also makes an appearance as the human embodiment of the Long Fork itself. His energy as the fork is utterly chaotic in the most Tabitha-appropriate ways and it really helps to land the show’s ending. The variety show format also allows for guest appearances every night: the evening I attended included Maddy Weeks as a recently divorced ventriloquist whose wife even took the doll.
This show may be set in 1969 but 2025 is definitely Tabitha’s year. Between The Telling Of The Untold Truth of Tabitha Booth and the Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour, McNair is really afforded the chance to go deep with Tabitha, to see what the character will do when placed in different situations in different eras. There’s so much potential. And given that McNair had already established a comic voice prior to arriving at Tabitha, it’s unlikely that they’ll become typecast as just ‘The Long Fork Lady Lady.’
The Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour! Is playing until April 20
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/the-booth-variety-spectacular-formal-apology-hour/