Review by Steve Bennett

It’s a huge hit with the girls’ nights out who’ve come to see her in this tiny venue, and catnip to the subset of gay men who inhabit her glitzy world of sparkle and gossip, and absolutely adore a woman with an in-your-face attitude. Any my, does Rusciano have that.

She’s unabashed as she shares what might be painful or embarrassing memories, from her first period to losing her virginity, in the sort of graphic detail that elicits howls of horror alongside the howls of laughter.

The show starts by soliciting slang terms for the vagina, and that’s just a taster to the body issues she throws open to the world.... ‘boob pubes’ is a an especially enduring image, sticking in the mind despite best efforts to dislodge it. But she feels she has to expose these truths, as when she tried to deal with them alone at such a difficult age, the results were typically gruesome. Indeed, her own puberty is explored because her eldest daughter, Marcella, is 11 and fast-approaching the same ordeal.

Puberty Rhythm And Blues revels in discomfort and honesty. It’s not clever or sophisticated in its comedy and the only punchline is ever the humiliation Rusicano’s changing body heaped on her. But the hour storms ahead thanks to her tsunami-force delivery and vivaciously animated performance.

A 2004 contestant on Australian Idol – as well as host of women-centred radio show Mammamia – Rusciano punctuates her tales with bursts of impressively sung music, accompanied by Ryan Yipon guitar. They are not really necessary – especially as she also has the comic device of the ‘segue fan’ to get her out of a tight spot and wipe-clean her slate of graphic image – but they add a nightclub feel to this glorified broom cupboard appropriate to her larger-than-life style.

Review date: 17 Apr 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival