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Emma Holland – Don’t Touch My Trinkets

By Bella Jones

Are you an adult who misses the experience of getting a lucky dip at your local fair? Unsure what exactly you were going to get but certain it would be something exciting? Emma Holland might just be the comedy equivalent of that.

Don’t Touch My Trinkets is a visit to Holland’s own personal art gallery, one where she is allowed to handle the exhibits as much as she wants. The audience follows her journey through some of the art mediums she tried before ending up in comedy. Holland is a master at combining the absurd with the ordinary, the result? An hour of comedy that ranges from physical gags, tech, and traditional storytelling, plus just about everything in between.

Emma Holland is in demand, appearing on and writing for The Cheap Seats, Have You Been Paying Attention? Most recently she wrote for the AACTAs. Her latest comedy show proves why her impressive CV is no surprise.

This show is intensely, cleverly written. It’s almost exhausting just how many jokes Holland has managed to fit in, as she ties together stories from childhood, casual sexism and genuine enthusiasm for nearly every form of art.

One of Holland’s most impressive talents lies in the fact that a quick dick joke feels perfectly at home next to biting social commentary. All building towards an ending that was a festival highlight for me. Unafraid to move quickly she easily keeps the audience on their toes with a determined passion and clear understanding of exactly what kind of performance she wants to give. Not that it’s hard to keep the room’s attention, Holland has a clear audience and sold out shows night after night prove just how much her niche is connecting with the right people.

Emma Holland’s brain seems like an incredible place to spend even an hour in, it’s always a treat to get to experience it.

Emma Holland performs Don’t Touch My Trinkets at ACMI til April 20

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/emma-holland-don-t-touch-my-trinkets/

Adam Kay – This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor

By Lisa Clark

More of an author’s book talk than a comedy show, Adam Kay has taken out lots of his most shocking and amusing experiences from his personal diaries  to put into this show. The stories are often extreme and outrageous and more believable for it. I’ve seen similar medical stories told by other comedians and also from a friend at the end of working exhausting Saturday nights in Emergency at a major hospital. So although occasionally too graphic, little of it felt new or fresh to me.

The first couple of stories were so disgustingly off-putting, if I hadn’t been stuck in the middle of a row I would’ve walked out. If only for a breather. There was no warning from Adam (apart from the sign upstairs before you enter about upsetting content) about how gruesome and distressing he was about to become. It’s very early in the show, which might be his audience test for if your stomach is up for this, then stick around for the rest of the show. I certainly failed at finding humour in it, while others laughed in shock at their extreme repulsiveness.

My main problem is that I didn’t find most of these tales very funny or titillating or whatever he means them to be. These are people’s lives and I find it a bit weird that he’s still milking them for attention fifteen years after he’s stopped practicing. He’s a charming performer but provides no context, very little about his own life and there was no through tale or over arcing story. He just reads dates from his diaries and tells the anecdotes in a very matter of fact manner. Perhaps those who’ve read the books or seen the TV show based on the books would understand the context better, but the laughs in the audience are mostly sporadic and middling, meeting his rhythm or shocked laughter.

Kay’s show had the rhythm of a one-liner comedian, and realising that he needed to add a bit of colour and movement for the audience, he’s broken it up with some lame musical parody songs, despite not being a brilliant singer. One is a running gag where the audience gets to “guess the ailment” singing along to the tune of “Hallelujah” and the rest are all more of his anecdotes or medical facts put to the tunes of famous songs such as “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. It could be that my benchmark for musical comedy is fairly high but the audience were having a nice time singing along. Kay then ends the show with the tragic tale that took him out of the industry and advice for those in the audience who are currently in the industry to look after themselves and take real breaks when needed.

Stand up comedy about working in the medical industry has been around a long time. Jo Brand and Georgie Carroll for example are brilliantly funny storytellers and their experiences are full of the sort of gallows humour that the medical profession previously only shared amongst themselves. Kay’s brutal and honest anecdotes certainly entertained the crowd, and if you’ve got a stronger stomach than me, this might be for you.

Adam Kay performs This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor at The Playhouse, The Arts Centre Melbourne until April 20.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/adam-kay/

Melanie Bracewell – A Little Treat

By Bella Jones

Melanie Bracewell is far from the first comedian to be diagnosed with ADHD and write a comedy show about it – a fact that she is aware of. But one of her biggest skills lies in turning ordinary stories into hilarious anecdotes, finding the funny in common experiences.

Her latest show may be titled ‘A Little Treat’, but for the audience it’s more like a smorgasbord of humour and entertainment. The crowd can immediately tell that they’re in the safe hands of Bracewell’s well-proven comedy skills. From her previous stand up shows to writing and co-hosting The Cheap Seats it seems that Bracewell is exactly where she’s meant to be. Every line is written with the intention of getting the most laughs, with quick quips and delightfully satisfying call-backs it’s clear Bracewell is dedicated to creating the best show possible.

Throughout the hour we follow Bracewell’s retelling of the events that lead to her getting an ADHD diagnosis. From air dry clay, dining in the dark, to car manuals, the show is full of just about everything. Not only is it all treated to Bracewell’s sharp wit, but there’s also some touching moments relating to her and her partner Shaun. She excels at drawing the audience into the scenes she’s describing. Her clever use of repeating lines gathers more and more laughter as well as serving as a great connection back to her ADHD. She always seems completely in control, leaving the audience perfectly positioned to enjoy a fantastic hour of laughs.

Bracewell’s shows are worth recommending to just about anyone, A Little Treat is no exception and might just be her strongest work yet.

Melanie Bracewell performs A Little Treat at Max Watts Until April .20

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/melanie-bracewell-a-little-treat/

Pierre Novellie – Must We?

By Peter Newling

With a French first name and an Italian surname, Novellie was born in South Africa, raised on the Isle of Man and now resides in London. It’s of little surprise that his onstage persona is worldly – more surprising that it is quintessentially British.

Novellie’s schtick is classy, erudite and unwaveringly polite – perhaps a product of his Cambridge education (where he served as Vice President of Footlights). Adorned in suit and tie and pocket handkerchief, he is the polar opposite of unwashed stoner type of comic.

But in no way is this a gimmick or an exaggeration of the thoroughly British, standoffish stereotype. His delivery is warm and engaging. There is nothing caustic or petty in his choice of material or his delivery. It’s quite charming.

Much of his material is based on the impact of autism on his life, and how it informs his choices and decisions. The need for order – to have rules and incentives to follow those rules – is the bedrock of this. His reflections on when this order breaks down – when logic and fairness and reasonableness fail – are absolutely hilarious.

His choices of material to illustrate this are first rate. He covers a fair bit of territory, including his experiences with clothes shopping, being gaslit by algorithms, and his relationship with food. He doesn’t rely on self-deprecation, rather he invites us to see things as he sees them. He has a unique talent for verbal imagery. Every story, like every word, has been carefully chosen.

Novellie’s diagnosis of autism at age 30 led him to write his book “Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things?: A Comedian’s Guide To Autism”. That, like his show, encourages us to think about how our lack of empathy toward neurodivergence exacerbates the pain of the condition. This is bought into sharp focus in the discussion on autism loss of life toward the end of the set. It’s eye opening and really powerful.

Must We? marks Novellie’s first appearance at the MICF, and hopefully the first of many. Fans of beautiful turns of phrase, cargo cults and thoughtful material will love this show.

Pierre Novellie – Must We? is playing until April 18 at the Westin – Three, at 7:25pm and 6:25pm on Sundays.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/pierre-novellie/

Frankie McNair & Isaac Haigh – The Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour!

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/

 

Mish Wittrup – Off With Her Head!

By Peter Hodgson

You only get one chance to make a first impression. We can’t control what people remember about us. To most of us, Mish Wittrup is a talented comedian, writer and and podcaster who has won the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Best Newcomer Award in 2022 and who brightens up any Aunty Donna project she’s involved in. But to Google, her first notable achievement was …okay, how do I say this without spoiling it? Let’s just say it was something private and sex-adjacent and it happened back at uni.

After reeling from the pure mortification of this discovery, Mish uses it as a springboard to examine her sense of self and to look at the various hats she’s worn in her life. Off With Her Head! takes us on a tour of the different core values Mish has taken on in her journey to find out who she truly is, outside of the context of the person who did that stuff at house parties at uni. Is she a lover? A fighter? Can she lock down a crush who looks like everyone’s favourite early 2000s rock star? Can she cut it as a scholarship student in the horrifying world of private school? This fast-paced show takes us on a Powerpoint-aided exploration of the postmodern psyche, like those memes of Charlie from Always Sunny piecing a mystery together with photos, maps and red string. It’s all there: call centres, Rubik’s Cubes, Chris Pine, the intricacies of corporate procurement, even a big musical number.

This is only Wittrup’s fourth year in comedy but it sure doesn’t feel like it. She has that unique ability to make an entire audience feel like we’re all mates at a party, but the writing, direction and multimedia components keep the show moving forward. It may have taken Wittrup a while to find live comedy but clearly she belongs here.

Mish Wittrup – Off With Her Head! Has added extra shows! It’s playing April 11 and 12 at The Greek.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/mish-wittrup/