Megan McKay – Squirrel Comedy

Megan Mckay : Never Trust A Man With Thin Lips

By Colin Flaherty

With the title Never Trust a Man With Thin Lips you could assume that you’re about to see an hour of relationship advice from a woman bitter and twisted from all the bastards she’s dated but the reality is far from this. Megan Mckay presents herself as a cheerful, terminally single 40something with a kooky outlook on life in this delightfully fun confessional show.

This show is a series of wonderful routines describing the first world problems she endures as well as some of the small victories achieved along the way. Megan tells of the minefield that is long distance relationships, her problems with keeping track of her finances, excitedly brags about an award for excellence she obtained and tells us of a modern application for Phrenology.

The hour is jam packed with Bait and Switch type jokes; it’s the perfect delivery vehicle for this material. Plenty of unique, amusing lines keep the audience in rapt laughter. There’s a thick coating of self-deprecation on almost every line with a bit of snark on top and plenty of clever digs at the world around her. This steers the show away from being comically tragic as we would normally expect from this premise and gives it a unique spin. She sees the world in a delightfully eccentric way using colourful turns of phrase to keep us on our toes and chuckling.

It’s impossible not to fall under Megan’s spell as she’s just so damn likeable. She comes across as a lovable loser persona and with an über confidence that is so joyful and optimistic that you can’t help going along for the ride. To younger folks she’s the slightly embarrassing aunt who’s great to chuckle at but those her age and older can relate to her tales and laugh at themselves as they are cheering our hero on.

Staying as far as possible from any important or weighty topics, this is a delightful hour of thoughtful yet fluffy confection. A delicious treat served by a charming lady to boot.

Never Trust A Man With Thin Lips is on at Fad Gallery until April 3

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/never-trust-a-man-with-thin-lips-megan-mckay

Lauren Bok, Chelsea Hughes & Megan Mckay : Wander Women

By Lisa Clark

Up in the air! Is it Wonder Woman? No but it’s still pretty cool. It’s Wander Women a great little sketch show by three talented comedians who want to share their Superpower skills at travelling with anyone who wants to join them on their journey.

Those hoping for anything more of the fab 1970s Wonder Woman than its catchy theme tune might be a little disappointed but fear not, the Wander Women have an entertaining show in store. Lauren Bok from Live on Bowen, Megan Mckay (a 2012 National Finalist at RAW Comedy) and Chelsea Hughes from America are our Super Hosties providing the in-flight entertainment on an imaginary flight into the world of travelling, travel nightmares, and tourists from hell. They also share their travelling Super Powers with us

The girls begin where we all begin with packing for the trip and end the tour with a very modern way to end holidays, adding reviews to Trip Advisor. The Superhero ‘Travelator’ saves us from travel stress with a very edifying and amusing lecture on packing tips. The Wander Women also advise us on how travel can make or break a relationship, what not to wear and warn us against Delhi belly.

Their satire of the insensitive tourist whose priority is getting the ‘right’ photo for their social media site was a little dark but spot on and had a cracking tag. As did the pun-laden gameshow with the delightfully surreal element of a jar of chutney as a contestant. Why not? The Contiki tour guide could’ve been more stressed out but was a great low key way to involve the audience. The ‘Dance of the Luggage Liquids’ was a highlight though things could’ve gotten messier, but then maybe I’ve been influenced by seeing way too much of Dr Brown & Sam Simmons and this is definitely not that show.

There were a lot of really fresh and fabulous ideas here and the performers worked well together considering this was their first outing. My main suggestions would be that each of them concentrate on creating stronger (& sillier) characters. The travel insurance phone room would’ve benefitted from some interesting characters and the TripAdvisor interrogators could’ve been more extreme. Lauren Bok in silly wig has fun as one of the ‘Tourist Fashion Police” but the others don’t seem to have put much work into their characterisations and the whole thing is not vicious enough. Though it’s pretty hard to out-bitch such a nasty reality concept I guess.

The audio visual component was excellent and a perfect accompaniment to the live performances without ever overshadowing or outstaying it’s welcome. The idea of breaking up the show with three sets of three genuine holiday snaps was perfect and the ‘un-happy snaps’ were particularly funny. The finale was also inspired, the girls had a lot of work put into it and it’s definitely one of the best finales at this year’s comedy festival.

Wander Women is a pretty nice way of spending an hour at the Comedy Festival and there are a few bang on belly laughs among the titters, groans and smiles of recognition. The ratio could go up if they really threw everything in and ramped it up a notch, so there is heaps of potential here in this debut work. It’s certainly enjoyable for experienced travellers and we learned some serious super powered packing skills.

Wander Women is on at The Portland Hotel until April 19
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/wander-women-lauren-bok-chelsea-hughes-megan-mckay

5 Good Reasons to see Wander Women

1. It’s is the only travel-themed sketch show in the Comedy Festival.

2. It’s written, produced and performed by 3 funny and fierce Melbourne comedians, Lauren Bok (Channel 31’s Live on Bowen), Chelsea Hughes (RAW Comedy State Finalist 2014) and Megan Mckay (RAW Comedy National Finalist 2013). That’s right – a Triple Threat!

3. The show will give a definitive ruling on the age old packing debate over whether you should pack or roll your clothes.

4. You will get to see three completely untrained women do a ballet.

5. It’s on early in the evening so you’ll have plenty of time to watch lots of other comedy festival shows!

Wander Woman is on at The Portland Hotel

Read more about the show and buy tickets on the Comedy Festival website:

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/wander-women-lauren-bok-chelsea-hughes-megan-mckay