Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

It’s a slightly dated, borderline cliche, way to start a comedy show, as Ellen Mahoney offers her own version of Eminem’s Lose Yourself. But if only she’d heeded the ‘you only get one shot’ advice a little more closely.

For while she has an interesting backstory, she has only one shot to tell it and launch herself onto the comedy festival scene – and she’s done so too early. She just hasn’t yet got the storytelling chops or assured stage persona to do justice to what she wants to say.

She makes a statement by taking to the stage dressed head-to-toe in pink velour, but it’s a look that her less confident performance cannot match.  Characters are poorly sketched out and there are holes in the jumbled narrative, which is told without the dramatic ebbs and flows that it clearly warrants. It’s a surprise to see there’s a director attached, Bev Killick, as direction is what it’s so badly lacking.

Nor does Mahoney have the confidence to relax and let the tale unfold; instead Feminem is told as a series of restless, uneasy punchlines, fitting a familiar new-act rhythm born from the mistaken belief that a weak laugh is always better than no laugh. If in doubt, chuck in a fanny gag is not a good mantra.

The biggest revelation of the hour – that she found herself married into a family of vile white supremacists – is completely undersold. Other comics put more jeopardy into describing a supermarket self-checkout than she puts into this chilling incident. 

Her husband – 34 when she was just 22, and they wed after just three days – was just the latest shitty man to treat her appallingly, a pattern that started with her grossly sexist father. There’s a lot of understandable anger and defiance on display, but it hasn’t been processed into the powerful comeback that so obviously lies within. Instead, the show feels like a simple outpouring of contempt and cheap pot-shots.

Another intriguing but under-served storyline is how she was rejected by the middle-class feminists when she tried to join their cause. But, again, this segment is defined more by what it missed than what it reveals.

Sympathies obviously lie with Mahoney for the harsh way she’s been treated over the years, which is why the sense of wasted opportunity is so palpable. For now she has told her origin story in this underpowered way, what does she do next? You only get one shot, one opportunity to blow.

• Ellen Mahoney is at Storyville tonight and tomorrow at 5.15pm, and at 4.15pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Review date: 7 Apr 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival