Review by Steve Bennett at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

This is the festival experience no performer wants: two people in the audience – and one of them a critic.

Still in the finest ‘show must go on’ spirit, Hayley Butcher knuckles down to perform her tales of new motherhood as if the room had been a sell-out.

It surely helps that she is an actor more than a comedian, with a performance locked behind the fourth wall, more theatrical monologue than stand-up. The writing, too, more resembles a sardonic mum blog than a slay ‘em in the aisles comedy set.

There are laughs of recognition – or there would be had there been more of us in the audience to recognise things – as she tackles familiar topics from sleep deprivation to judgemental mummies, to dealing with the copious amount of poo her son generates.

New parenthood is a well-trodden topic, so even though Butcher is sharing her vexations with candour – especially the feeling of becoming isolated from the rest of humanity – the big jokes don’t quite materialise. However, plenty of sympathy does, as Butcher empathetically and honestly conveys her struggles through her new normal.

The show is nicely put-together, free-flowing and punctuated with several of the John Farnham tracks that help her deal with her postnatal crisis. Her other coping mechanism? ‘I thought I’d give the Melbourne comedy festival a crack…’

That casual attitude is why Pressure Down is going to find it hard to compete with the shows from stand-ups who are out every night honing their craft the hard way. But the writing is witty, Butcher is watchable, and fellow new mums will take plenty of succour from the fact that they are not alone.

Review date: 18 Apr 2017
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