The nature of a one-hour of stand-up show is that the audience gets to know a performer’s particular quirks or foibles, their thoughts on themselves and the state of the world. Their concerns might be intimate or global, but hopefully they are funny and you come away feeling like you’ve got to know them better.
The nature
of a Festival like this one is that you’ll find recurring concerns across
multiple routines. In recent years, comedians have been better able to be open
about the mental health, joke about therapy and family trauma, and be honest
about the important job they hold – given the state of the world in 2025.
Gone are
the days that a comedian can get away with complaining about their wives, their
family, airline food, bloody traffic or service in restaurants. And as much as
there is a strain of straight, white comedians complaining that there are
things you just can’t say anymore, there is also a much broader representation of people at the Festival these days – some of them making jokes about things you’ve never even heard discussed on stage anymore.
In Dad
Genes, Eddie Pattison’s debut stand-up comedy show, they talk openly and
honestly about the difficult last few years of their life. Just over two years
ago, they started taking testosterone to become trans masc non-binary. A month
later, their father died of prostate cancer.
Losing a
parent is an experience we’ll all have at some stage, though I thankfully haven’t
yet. Losing someone to cancer or dealing with your own diagnosis is a central
theme to a number of shows at the Comedy Festival this year. Going through such
a formative, difficult experience at the same time you’re also on hormones
ready to finally become the person you’ve always felt like you were supposed to
be – well, I’ve never seen that story told before.
Eddie is a
charming, likeable performer. I saw them in Altar by Em Tambree at
Midsumma last year and am excited to hear that show is coming back. As Dan,
Eddie showed a particular talent for creating a character who is adept at code-switching while dealing
with the fallout of their transition. Telling the story of their own life requires
a different kind of honesty, of course. The story of Eddie's transition – coming out,
finding acceptance, finding love – wasn’t complicated by typical queer trauma, but by the death of a loving, accepting dad.
The
combination of these two life-altering moments could be heavy, and though Eddie
leans into the emotion of loss occasionally, most of the show is upbeat and joyous.
Even the scattering of their dad’s ashes becomes a raucous cacklefest for at
least ten minutes, as things get more and more out-of-hand.
But the
show also indulges in the comedy of coitus interruptus, hold music,
observations on observational comedy and their particular interest in “puppy
play”. Eddie even spends a good amount of time talking about how much they love
their partner, something a cis straight white male comedian could never.
Dad
Genes is a gem of a
show and Eddie Pattison is one of the next generation of comedians you should
keep your eye on. Be prepared to laugh, cry and learn a lot about bum hair, “bottom
growth” and the unfortunate resurrection of Eddie’s deadname.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
Dad Genes finishes tonight at Melbourne Comedy Festival. I have no doubt, it will return.
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