Tuesday 1 April 2014

With A Little Help From Her Friends

The Melbourne comedy scene is not short of female comics, fortunately, but many of them use a style of delivery which teeters between cute and ditsy and have never really engaged me. Similarly with male comics projecting an alpha-male, macho image.
Rose Callaghan, however, has arrived on the scene and is anything but ditsy. This comic takes to the stage like a fish to water, confidence just pouring from her.
She tells tales of frank honesty concerning her housemates who judge her slightly dissolute lifestyle; the perils of dating and her sexually adventurous mates. Her delivery style is punchier and more direct than many of her contemporaries which elicits hearty laughter from the audience rather than mildly amused chuckling and she has a great command of the stage. In style she has it all under control and manages a couple of call-backs which round-out her routines in a satisfying manner.
Rose's mates for the evening are Nick Capper and Tom Ballard, both excellent comics.
Nick is a hilarious and surreal comic with a dry wit and comic timing I haven't seen since Steven Wright. His slightly uncertain, slowburn delivery is a welcome change of pace in stand-up and he keeps the audience baffled and laughing with gags about albatross, his life growing-up on a farm and his Father's idea of a valuable life experience.
Tom Ballard will be familiar to many from radio and television and is clearly comfortable on stage, even when performing in front of an audience containing a few seasoned comics, a reviewer and a festival organiser. This was professional comedy, delivered in hilarious fashion, the audience laughing non-stop throughout the set which covered such diverse topics as male topiary, the efficient consumption of chips and a novel solution to the boats situation.
Rose Callaghan And Mates is at the Duke of Wellington Hotel on Flinders Street at 6pm and is a great way to start the evening by anyone's standards.

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