Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

What does Bleep Bloop mean? Whatever the hell you want it to – although Lou Wall favours a liberating celebration of stupid mistakes. It’s their show, so their call.

And what a high-octane rollicking rollercoaster ride of a show it is! Wall frames it as an album, belting out a series of 1980s-inspired bangers, plus the occasional slower ballad, that emerges from an impressively (or worryingly) long list of jaw-dropping escapades.

A self-confessed ‘softcore menace’, the 6ft 5in comic, resplendent in lime green tracksuit, glories in a reputation for always being late, claiming it as a trait of their sexuality. So, presumably, picking them up on that behaviour would be a hate crime. Easily bored and prone to mental tumult, Wall also has a penchant for pranks, which they call ‘spicy self-care’ – although Victorian Police prefer the phrase ‘minor crime’. 

Yet this irrepressible force of nature also has a kinder side, as proved by the lengths to which they go to rescue a puppy trapped under a drain. This, too, ends in chaos but Wall typically shrugs off all responsibility, instead playing the victim card when a fellow rescuer fails to use the comic’s preferred non-binary pronoun.

This is all belted out at machine-gun speed (except for the encore, the one track that felt a little flat). One impressive, hilarious chunk compresses an insane Facebook Marketplace encounter into a frenzied few minutes, with each increasingly bonkers message ratcheting up the tension and the incredulity. You’ll be breathless after it, from the pace, from the audacity, and from laughing so much.

A contemporary antidote to stale stand-up conventions, Wall could easily stake a claim to being the voice of a generation with this joyous, cabaret-tinged celebration of self in all its idiosyncratic aspects. That includes nonconventional sexuality and gender, to talking freely about mental health issues and the meds that treat them.

What does Bleep Bloop *really* mean? A damn good time, that’s what. 

• Lou Wall: Bleep Bloop is on at Trades Hall at 8.40pm on April 21 to 23, and 7.40pm on April 24.

Review date: 20 Apr 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival