REVIEW: Zoë Coombs Marr, The Splash Zone – Melbourne Comedy Festival

Zoë was on a train once, twelve years old, travelling from Sydney to – no, wait, she has ADHD and she won’t be getting back to that story for a while. In the meantime, we hear about an Uber driver playing Hans Zimmer and the kid from Florida who wanted to see a kangaroo up close, and her dog’s photo at the local IGA.

She explains how she’s received when she travels to England, given her Grafton accent sounds better when she shouts “there’s trouble at the dam”. Brits don't really care for their criminal cousins at all.

And there’s a long diversion about her reckoning with the fact that at the first trial run of this show – the day after the US Election, there were two Trump supporters in the audience. She’s certain they are the only two people in the middle of the MAGA-Zoe Venn diagram, but what does it mean for reaching out and making human connections?

The Splash Zone isn’t as high concept as last year’s Every Single Thing in My Whole Entire Life or her shows as Dave, but she’s still the master of speed-running through a hundred stories, have them all make sense and keep the audience in fits of laughter. And when she gets back to the train story, you know you’re in the hands of a comic genius. 

- Keith Gow, Theatre First

Zoë Coombs Marr is playing at the Town Hall until April 20



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