Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

With so many comedians, especially young ones, carrying anecdotal shows on personality alone, it’s refreshing to see a stand-up committing to writing like Demi Lardner does. 

Just about everything she describes comes with a pithy, offbeat synonym that you know she’s grafted hard over, however casually it’s presented. Hair is a ‘little fur helmet’, a scab is a ‘blood yamaka’, a waffle is… well, let’s not give any more away, even though her debut show is rich with such inventive language. She’s a twisted thesaurus in human form, dedicated to putting witty images throughout her show.

Many of her premises might seem familiar: emoticons, computer porn, drinking beer – and there’s a good chunk on her androgynous looks and the fact that her slight frame means she could probably pass for half her 22 years. But the tangential way she tackles them is so distinctive. She’s not the ‘bastard child of…’ anyone, and when she does do an old-school ‘pull back and reveal’ gag late in the show, it comes as a surprise because you don’t expect such formula form her – and has more impact because of it.

In her delivery, Larder – winner of Melbourne’s Raw comedy and Edinburgh’s So You Think You’re Funny? back in 2013 –  may affect the sort of ironic ‘am I right, fellas?’ swagger of many of her contemporaries, but she plays it well, and displays a sparky confidence even when that facade drops.

Some texture to break up the pacey stand-up comes in the form of phone calls from her father direct to her subconscious. But she’s not a comic who needs a gimmick to entertain, so this device is rightly used sparingly – but it also offers a glimpse of greater emotional depths she might one day explore. But not here.

One of the best jokes is a great running gag about gym freaks, but it’s not quite the defining, calling card routine that would catapult this from a recommended show into a truly essential one. That said, few Melbourne debuts are this assured, and even fewer display such attentive, skilful comic writing that will stand Lardner in very good stead indeed.

Review date: 6 Apr 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett