Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Nikki Britton, Grandma Is Not Growing Up, April 3, 2018 ***


MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL
Powder Room, Melbourne Town Hall, until April 15, 2018
Star Review: *** 
Australian act 
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Review also published in Herald Sun Comedy Festival online, Tues April 3, 2018. KH
Nikki Britton

 Nikki Britton's Grandma gleefully recreates the childhood dreams and ambitions of young and old alike, in her 'Realisation Station'.

Grandma, who is of a type not seen since early Edna Everage days, sports a silvery wig, glasses, pearls and a polyester frock, and she has a significant problem with gaseous eruptions that cause hysterics in the young audience.

She also has a hearing issue, which creates a running gag when she can't hear the names of her child volunteers, who she calls such loony names as 'Mushroom' and 'Batteries Not Included'.

Britton's Grandma is goofy and disinhibited, engaging easily with audience members, drawing them onto the stage to join her as backup rap dancers for Grandma's unforgettable Soup Rap, a number to which she could easily add another verse.

The kids share with her their dreams: being a Popstar, a Rockstar, a YouTuber, and even a kid who wants a proper job – as a Vet.

Grandma's shiny, red, shopping jeep holds all her dreams of being a magician, a rap artist, a scientist and, most bizarre of all, she wanted to be a frankfurt sausage – with her very own human rotisserie made out of dads from the audience. Beware dads!

Using her ‘Realisation Station’, Grandma conjures the children’s dreams as cute, little drawings on a screen immediately the children describe them to her. It's a clever and magical element to the show.

The kids obviously got Grandma's message, as was made loud and clear by a child calling out at the end, 'Never stop dreaming!' So, dream on people, and don't grow up.


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