By Jayden Edwards
If nothing else, Brisbane Gen Y’er Mel Buttle is, unique. She’s young, kooky, energetic and so comfortable with her own embarrassment, that she’s taken it out for lunch, tamed it and made it her bitch in her new show ‘How embarrassment’.
Since being nominated for Best newcomer at the 2010 festival, Mel has gone from strength to strength with critically acclaimed shows, her popular podcast ‘The Miniutes’, awards, gigs on triple j and other stations plus a bunch of comedy writing. It’s clear the people dig her style, and there’s a bunch more of it in this show.
Donning a sensible nana cardigan, frizzy hair and vintage woolen skirt, Mel is hardly your typical young woman. But don’t let the get-up fool you, she’s as feisty and sarcastic as the best of them. This brilliant mash up of conservatism and brashness makes for a barrel of laughs, and just propels her material further. Style comparisons with a young Judith Lucy are pretty spot on.
In ‘How Embarrassment’, we learn just what made Mel the way she is. She dissects her only-child childhood, the far from perfect parenting skills of the separated Mr and Mrs Buttle and a brigade of misfit elders and school yard chums, all factors that helped and hindered her upbringing.
Scattered throughout this journey are self-deprecating tales of embarrassment with just the right amount of vulnerability that’ll have you laughing at her and with her. Her tales are mostly from childhood so their apparent insignificance bundled with the gravitas she puts behind them, and use of omg totz lame buzzwords, makes for big laughs!
Her tales are coated in her own trademark bizarreness, yet are still relatable. It can boarder on alienation a little bit when she gets on a tangent, but things are back on track soon enough. The best and final part of the show is her Golden Girls inspired sex fantasy script reading. Yep, it’s something.
‘How Embarrassment’ is golden, girl!
Mel is on at The Victoria Hotel – Acacia Room
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/how-embarrassment-mel-buttle