Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

With her stand-up shows frequently addressing dark, raw and challenging personal issues, it always seemed unlikely that Geraldine Hickey would transition to morning radio, one of the few places Australian comedians can actually earn a living.

But two years ago she joined the Breakfasters team on Melbourne’s Triple R. Has that changed her?

Well, her mainstream exposure seems to have softened the edges a bit as we head into Plucky. The show opens with her goes around the audience asking them to share their biggest fears, in what could almost be a phone-in. 

They suggest the likes of spiders, heights or public speaking, while Hickey contributes stories about her dread of dentists, nudity, running in any form, or even being on holiday with no one to organise things. She clearly doesn’t have a fear of stretching the premise a bit…

There might not be much to a lot of these superficial tales, but Hickey is a gently engaging storyteller, hooking the audience in with her low-key delivery, and an inherent good humour in all she says. There’s some idea of confronting these demons, but it’s lightly applied.

However, after spending so long winning our confidence, there comes a powerful gear change for the final quarter of the show. Starting with the admission that one of her dreads is that ‘my dad may be an arsehole’, she takes things to a deeper confessional and personal level. For our darkest fears are far more fundamentally human than things that go bump in the night.

Her relationship with her ex-trucker of a dad is clearly complicated, especially as Hickey Sr has clearly not come to terms with his daughter’s homosexuality. The plebiscite into marriage equality proved another reason to be fearful, too – a very real concern that the bigots would win.

Illness throws family relationships into stark focus, and we get an affectionate portrait of Hickey’s father, flaws and all, while not shying away from more challenging aspects. This is Hickey back on the sort of difficult emotional terrain that she navigates so well, with insight and humour, often of the mordant variety. 

It’s a powerful final act, topping an hour of robust conversational stand-up.

Review date: 5 Apr 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival