Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Sez has an ease on stage that belies her status as a festival newcomer. She’s got a decent following on social media, and brings the same casual authenticity that works online to the stage.

At 26, she’s pure Gen Z. She of course starts by telling us her neurodiversity (dyslexia) and sexuality (bi), opening a set that revolves around living in a dilapidated share house, growing up in a country backwater, modern dating and online interactions. It’s very familiar comic territory – over-familiar, really – although one person’s ‘hack’ is another’s ‘relatable’.

There’s little artifice to her, which is the root of her appeal, even though some sharpening of the more haphazard parts of her delivery would focus the comedy. 

Certainly, she’s an inveterate over-sharer, gleefully sharing anecdotes that might make others cringe. She’s got plenty to say about sex, for example, especially her naivety about it until she had her first orgasm. And yes, the mic is used a stand-in for a dick for some easy laughs, though her impression of what she thought ‘giving head’ meant, brings some witty physical comedy to bear on the otherwise basic act-out.

There’s a decent smattering of moments like this when she transcends the expected tales of drinking, throwing up and trying to get lucky ‘in da club’ and ‘in da pub’. The incursion of her housemate’s boyfriend into her domestic routine is nicely expressed, for instance, and  she has a knack for dropping unhinged voices and personas into some of the routines.

The observations are often turned into charming if forgettable ditties, accompanied by her omnicord, but it’s the conspiratorial contract she makes with her audience that’s her strength rather than this gimmick.

While Keeps Me Young is a rather simplistic introduction to who Sez is, the takeaway beyond some of the more route-one material is that she is a quirky, winningly open comedian who audiences warm to. Hopefully now the introductions are over she’s ready to push into more distinctive territory – and I suspect she’s got no shortage of frank stories to share.

Review date: 3 Apr 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival