Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

As a chatty, relatable comic who draws directly on her life for her stand-up, Lizzy Hoo has a lot to bring us up to speed on. 

She's turned 40, bought a house, and had a breakup, now finding herself on the dating apps for the first time in almost a decade. Unleashing her inner cougar, she’s swiping right on 27-year-olds, with their stamina and music-to-screw-by playlists.

It’s not the only attempt to cling on to youth, as she’s also been on a girls’ holiday, and her cohort – especially the mums now off the leash for a change – go wild on MDMA.

There’s not a lot of envelope-pushing in the comedy here, but Hoo’s got solid funny bones and an effortlessly engaging demeanour, heightened by her apparent willingness to be upfront about anything and everything in her life. 

Her parents remain a staple, especially dad Chan. The news is that he’s got cancer – not that the comic’s mum thought it worth mentioning, typical of the lightness with which the topic’s tackled. Chan doesn’t take it seriously either, with jolly ways of making his treatment seem less scary that his daughter’s only too happy to share.

The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, and Hoo's comedy can be defined as being gently edgy, if that’s not an oxymoron. She doesn’t mind venturing into darker waters, but never too deep, and as the very definition of a safe pair of hands, she never seeks to offend. 

Here she revels in the evils of being a property landlady, jokingly pines for family tragedy for the material and recalls when flashers were considered a joke, especially at her horny all-girls Catholic school, and not sex offenders. Ah, what misplaced nostalgia for simpler times!

Hoo’s That Girl is also surprisingly poop-heavy, including an hilariously humiliating incident while live on radio that’s the stand-out anecdote of the hour. 

The self-effacing matter-of-factness with which she tells all these anecdotes endear her to her audience to a rare degree, with punters forming lines to have their picture taken with her after the show, like she’s Pluto at Disney World. Her candid over-sharing and easy rapport makes them feel like they’ve made a funny friend they can firmly empathise with.

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