Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Melbourne Town Hall until April 20, 2014
Star rating:****
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Full review also online in Herald Sun. KH
Nietzschian Nihilism wrapped in a charmingly kooky package
UK
comic Sara Pascoe is relaxed, charming and unassuming while she totally upends
our belief in reality with her hilariously twisted philosophy.
She
is casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that declares, “There are no facts,
only interpretations,” a quote from Nihilist philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche,
that provides the bizarre basis of all that follows.
Pascoe
doesn’t do self-deprecating comedy but, instead, uses her weird, convoluted
logic to sneak up on us with unexpected twists and tag lines.
Despite
her easygoing, laconic and kooky style, Pascoe’s material is thought provoking as
she tells serious stories about personal or social issues – feminism, burkas,
elder-abuse, feeling unloved, phobias, pornography – then flips them with an
unexpected gag.
Her
fears are manifold and wide-ranging and she gets plenty of comic mileage from
her spider phobia and her paranoia that she is being watched.
Many
of her topics are cheerfully accessible including hairdressers, search engines,
alcohol, cats, a hilarious solution to page 3 girlie photos, and her obsession
with Andie MacDowell.
However,
she challenges us with issues such as nursing homes, faith, suffering and
identity, provides a fascinating, political perspective on bestseller, Fifty
Shades of Grey, and creates a cunning metaphor about choosing partners being like
a train ride.
Pascoe
is a master of reincorporation, leaps of logic and absurd arguments that
support impossible ideas, and her show is a gift that is riddled with twisted
life lessons.
Kate
Herbert
No comments:
Post a Comment