Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Bec Petraitis has always been a nerd. At school, she brought in a card from the SegaWorld arcade for show and tell, raving about the obscure character from the Sonic universe it featured to an entirely uninterested class.

Nerd F*ck feels a bit like that now. Even to a self-selecting audience full of geeks, she struggles to convey why her obsessions mean so much. She describes how she’s enthusiastic about them, but doesn’t adequately convey that passion first-hand – certainly not enough for us to join her in celebrating her obsessions. 

Mentions of Power Rangers, Doctor Who, or Pokemon land with this crowd, but they feel like casual namechecks, triggering laughs of recognition from those similarly invested in the brands, but no more.

A positive and quietly appealing stage presence, Petraitis offers some broadly biographical talk about not fitting in, sometimes finding her tribe with a shared hobby, but sometimes getting it wrong and finding herself a Game Cube in a world of PlayStations. 

But while her outsider status elicits some sympathy, she doesn’t examine her personality much, beyond hoping that an ADHD diagnosis – what else? – will explain why she is so drawn to certain cultural subgroups. 
Instead, the show is a series of insubstantial, slightly amusing anecdotes about her hobbies over the years that do not amount to much more – nor have any ambition to.

She shares cheesy childhood pictures from her dance class, then more of the same when she dons cosplay for her first convention. Daggy outfits are amusing, but it’s again superficial, forgotten as soon as the slide fades. Some other uses of AV are more effective; however, when illustrating the set pieces that deviate from stand-up, breaking up the hour.

You might expect a deep, intricate dive from a comedian who describes themself as a nerd. But, ironically, this is just not nearly nerdy enough.

Review date: 22 Apr 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival