Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Any comedian who uses the phrase: ‘That is not a joke, that is genuine pallbearing advice’ probably deserves your attention.

Indeed, Grace Jarvis’s quirkily funny festival debut is an appealing calling card, clearly setting out who she is by sharing all her idiosyncrasies with a warm, self-deprecating wit. 

A social outsider - par for the course for many a comedian - she describes her work as ‘unrelatable comedy - it’s for no one’, though to be so dismissive is to do herself a great disservice. By owning her vulnerabilities and insecurities, she makes her oddities relatable.

Her peculiar way of looking at the world might be ascribed to her autism, diagnosed late in life, while she seems overly prone to the sort of mishaps that have ‘potential material’ written all over them. She had an anxious childhood and has been beset by physical ailments – suffered both by herself and the poor rabbit she brought to get her through lockdown. Although she has to concede that she can’t make jokes about her bad hip, as Wil Anderson has a decade head-start on that front. 

Even more distinctively, she portrays herself as something of a rural naif, having only moved to Melbourne from country Queensland just before the pandemic hit. She has something of a cottagecore vibe, from the way she dresses to a love of cross-stitch, all affectionately mocked with astute but offbeat lines.

There are a few lulls, especially in the second half, as there’s not quite enough variety in pace and tone. But this is not a show short on punchlines. And, most crucially, it establishes Jarvis as an intriguing new voice worth listening out for.

• Grace Jarvis: Digging A Hole is at the Chinese Museum at 6.30pm tonight until Saturday and 5.30pm on Sunday

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