It’s difficult to stand out in a festival as big as the Melbourne’s Comedy Festival. Bridget Hassed, who was nominated for Best Newcomer for her show Girl Girl Girl last year, is back with a show titled Live Stand-Up Comedy Show Female Comedian Local Comedy Festival Event in an attempt to have the longest show title (she doesn’t) and also to really juice up the SEO and help people who are trying to weed out the dude comedians.
Bridget’s
new show is about sustaining a career as a stand-up comedian. You are your own
producer and director and publicist and video content creator and a host of
other people just to make a straightforward comedy show work. But outside of
that, you don’t want to let down other people in your life – so you want make
sure you’re a good daughter, a good friend, good with your taxes and maybe find
a rich husband to bankroll your art.
But being
sugar baby seems out of Bridget’s reach right now, too. She can no longer pass for a
teenager and she’s yet to enter her MILF era. What’s a strong independent woman
who’s having trouble juggling all the pressures of modern life along with a
burgeoning comedy career to do?
Live
Stand-Up Comedy Show Female Comedian Local Comedy Festival Event is full of great gags, but the thread
of “how do I keep this career going” was a bit repetitive and the shifts
between stories were sometimes stilted or haphazard. The jokes about ads
offered up by the algorithm of social media are a real highlight, and the observations
about dating straight men in the inner-north were hilarious.
This show
could use a bit of a polish and some tightening up. And perhaps that title is part
of the problem – there’s nothing to really focus the hour and shape the stories
around. There is a lot to be said about how the current era and the cost of
living makes even the job of a solo performer difficult, but spending too much
time on it feels a tad self-indulgent.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
Bridget Hassed is playing her final shows of the Comedy Festival tonight and tomorrow night
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