Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

The set-up for Jordan Barr’s show is – brace yourself – that she is in hell, where she is presenting a talk based on the lessons she has learned about female sexuality  from her research, which involved hanging out in the toilet of a 1980s karaoke bar. Phew!

It’s a complicated and largely irrelevant framework, that’s occasionally abandoned (‘…and here’s a world from our sponsors’, one skit starts)  typical of a show that gets itself into all sorts of muddles in aiming for complexity. 

Yet at its heart are a series of sketches that are already thematically linked, showcasing Barr’s considerable talent for character work. And she has a decent singing voice, too, so maybe that explains the setting.

Archetypes we meet include the manic pixie dream girl, that one-dimensional figment of male fantasy, a pubescent schoolgirl and a cuckquean (which I’ve just learned is what a female cuckold is called). Oh, and there’s a weird scene based around a mucked-up version of My Sharona that’s more WTF? than LOL.

The link isn’t the jukebox classics these alter-ego sometimes sing, but the fact that all these women are defined by their imperative to please men – from bizarre beauty rituals to suppressing any depth to their personality. Barr highlights the emptiness this brings without laying the message too thickly. 

But the show needs a greater clarity of direction and – for a comedy festival – more jokes. There’s an occasional dependence on below-the-belt humour, such as saying ‘Vagisil’ in place of a real punchline, and the device of her presenting this as a talk leaves her reading from cards sometimes, which is a barrier between performer and audience.

She is a skilled, empathetic and versatile actor, though, and even when exaggerated her creations remain credible and recognisable – even if the convoluted premise isn’t.

Review date: 8 Apr 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival