Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett

The debut that won Heidi O’Loughlin a best newcomer nomination at Melbourne’s Barry Awards is as much an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? as it is comedy show.

She has a fascinating lineage, most notably an ancestor who was one the founding fathers of the Tahitian nationalist movement, opposing French colonisation in general and the nuclear tests on the Polynesian islands specifically. It’s a family history that takes a lot of telling, which, unfortunately, doesn’t leave a lot of room for the funnies.

O’Loughlin, already known around the festival as member of the Fanfiction Comedy team, is super-charming, engagingly coy and with an ever-smiling delivery, clearly delighted to be here, and proud to be sharing the greatness her forebear achieved.

She offers wryly amusing captions to same of the vintage photographs that illustrate the story, but most of the comedy comes not from the central plank of the storytelling, but from a home-made mixtape a fellow student on her London film course gave her – a compilation of hilariously out-of-tune Christmas hits.

Funny as that is, it does seem bolted on, comic relief after sections that discuss the French framing her ancestor for widespread arson, or a long 1914 letter from French Polynesia to a refugee who stowed away to Britain; none of which – as you might imagine – is especially funny.

Away from genealogy, O’Loughlin makes very valid points about sexism on the male-dominated New Zealand panel show where she was the token female regular, but the approach is a bit heavy-handed, especially considering the more nuanced, funnier way a lot of comics.

She has a wonderfully silly opening gambit, while more traditional stand-up sections, about her living in the UK and visiting the Commonwealth Games, are more sketchy, based on relatively thin ideas.

But her modest likability goes a long way, and an hour in her company is a pleasure, even if she hasn't yet figured out how to channel that into a strong comedy show.

Review date: 19 Apr 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett