Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

This is Steph Broadbridge’s first Melbourne comedy festival show, but she’s been grafting on the Sydney club circuit for several years. That experience, and her previous life as a musician, give her an easy stage confidence as well as a tight, wide-ranging and gag-filled hour that covers many of society’s touchstones, including mental health, #metoo, diversity and sexism.

Coming to stand-up a little later than most also means her point of view is more nuanced – and certainly more cynical – than idealistic youth. The title refers to the only portrayals of women she sees in the media – and she’s bitter about it, and much else besides.

We’re never too far from sexism (welcome to the patriarchy…) from the patronising, prerecorded comedy-club intro to a far more troubling incident from her student days. She deftly retells this story with honesty and condemnation, without pushing needlessly heavily to get a shock or sympathy response to add emotional heft to the show. The story speaks for itself. 

Elsewhere, she describes her encounters with the health system as she seeks professional opinion on whether she’s autistic. However, the blunt diagnosis she receives from one weary call handler is not exactly medical. The psychiatrist she does eventually get referred to has a worrying collection of online reviews, too, which Broadbridge covers with an amusingly jaunty gloss, even if the underlying reality is bleak. That’s emblematic of her whole shtick, reacting to life’s grit with a sharply sardonic, yet upbeat wit.

She boasts that she’s ‘headlining’ the festival, having the uncoveted 11.30pm slot but her brisk performance and well-constructed set keeps the energy buoyant even so late at night. Drawing on her previous profession, a few songs on the ukulele punctuate the set, but I can think of few higher compliments to say that for the rest of the accomplished hour, you forget that she’s a musical comedian at all.

• Steph Broadbridge: Hot Chick/Tired Mum is on at the Butterfly Club at 11.30pm until April 24.

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