Review by Steve Bennett

Melinda Buttle is proving one of the more hotly tipped newcomers this festival – hardly surprising since she seems to have come out of Brisbane fully-formed, more than able to lead an assured, consistent hour of laugh-rich storytelling.

She starts with a few easy swipes at uncouth bogans, while her tales about being a relief teacher to troublesome teens such as the petulant Teni$hya were unfortunately foreshadowed by Summer Heights High – right down to the surly Samoan pupil. Buttle’s descriptions inevitably suffer in comparison to Chris Lilley’s near-masterpiece, but are nonetheless wittily and evocatively told.

But other parts of her life cannot be usurped by others. By which I mean, largely, her father: a twitchy, racist former military man who enjoys online dating and picking fights with the homeless. Buttle finds strong humour in his larger-than-life personality, and even if his encounter with a big-city beggar rather peters out, she hits plenty of eloquent punchlines en route.

She plays up her awkwardness, stating up front that she’s no ‘Fitzroy hipster’ and making much of the fact that she wears a sensible cardigan at 28. It allows her to go down that well-trodden route of the unfashionable white kid performing rap-battle rhymes, a trick she uses a little too often, although you can’t deny the charm with which she does so.

Her outsider status is assured, however, with the revelation that she remains a virgin, and although she doesn’t delve too deep into the cause and effect of this, it opens the door for an hilarious story of ‘fingering’ that produces plenty of howls of comic shock, coming as it does from such an apparently straight-laced comedian.

Buttle, for the most part, plays it pretty straight with material not too far from the mainstream, so perhaps lacks that distinctive edge. But she delivers like a seasoned pro, hitting regular laughs with sharp observations and an innate likeability.

It’s the sort of combination of accessibility, quirkiness and amiability that will assure her a successful career in comedy for as long as she can sustain it. But there can be little doubt that she’s got off too a flying start.

Review date: 8 Apr 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett