7:00pm 14 April, Lower Town Hall, Melbourne Town Hall
We are so lucky to have both Tig Notaro and Maria Banford in town in the one festival.
For all those pathetic humans who say women comedians just aren't funny, they can keep their unfounded beliefs. I'm yet to see a man as talented and diverse as those two this year (but I'm seeing Simon Munnery this evening).
Maria Bamford is back with her particular brand of internal monologue said out loud.* She flits from topic to topic and performs little plays using only her hands.
Bamford is a genius who acts like a child while exposing us to her psyche. It's obscure, particular and extraordinary.
She has the ability to bring us emotionally on stage and then slap us back down to our seats. Everyone is mocked or might be. It's a personal show and it should be taken personally. That's how she means it because that's why it matters.
She closes with a stab at a particular kind of female comedian and it really is a stab. Take that. Bam. She knows what's going on. She's smart, she's funny and she's better than pretty much everyone else out there.
Written using Plain Text, mostly outside the venue before heading out to dinner.
* Everything after this point was written after getting home and while watching Top Chef Masters.
Saw this too, a great show, although sometimes I lost track of which voice was which in an argument/discussion with her sister, but I caught up again quick which was great!
An I agree with your last paragraph. Although I struggled (internally) a little as I was laughing at the mock character whilst thinking that I shouldn’t be laughing at that mock character as the point that is being made is that it’s not actually funny!
4.5 Stars.