Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

An excursion into Laura Davis’s uniquely fertile brain is a highlight of any comedy festival, and this year is no exception.

The comedian’s sweeping state-of-the-world, state-of-themselves monologues  are always ambitious in scope and fizzing with intelligence and humanity. Usually the only criticism is that they try to pack too much into an hour – though that’s a welcome change from all those comedians who spread scant material thin.

Perhaps to counter fears of overloading us, Davis kicks off Despair Is Beneath Us by offering a reassuring roadmap though the hour, persuading us to trust them over the ‘chicanes, swamps, dips’ and any other obstacles we might encounter on the expansive journey.

Ultimately, overcoming obstacles is also the theme of the show. Particularly the Mental resilience required to face the daily turmoil and hate consuming the world.

By way of analogy, Davis steps out of their comfort zone by sharing their deepest fears, trying to take on the sleep paralysis demons preying on their phobias of drowning and anaesthetics. 

The Edinburgh-based Australian has learned to be happy with their own discomfort – even though the rest of us might not be ready to take on major surgery while still compos mentis, as Davis does. But the take-out is that we are all more resilient than we think.

Along the way, the comic takes in racism in Australia, therapy, aphantasia (the inability to conjure Mental pictures), a seventh birthday party and Sun Tzu’s Art Of War, from which ‘know thyself’ is the biggest lesson. 

A hat is tipped towards Virginia Woolf, too, for creating the stream-of-consciousness style that Davis now wades in, and which sweeps up the rapt audience in this abandoned cat cafe, an aptly off-mainstream venue.

In that stream you will also find plenty of nuggets of comedy gold, including what’s guaranteed the best gag based on a Shakespearean sonnet you’ll hear this festival.

But it is the nuggets of advice that are even shinier, as Davis tries to persuade their audience to look at themselves through kind eyes and to not dwell on the past. They shy away from the idea of hope, but that’s ultimately the tone of this layered show – albeit in a practical, prosaic version of that emotion, rather than some ethereal idea.

Although the route here is still complex by most standards, this is probably Davis’s most straightforward message yet. ‘There’s no subtext - people don’t like it’, they assert. But still there’s no hand-holding, crediting the audience with enough gumption to join at least a few dots themselves, making the show the more rewarding and compelling because of it.

Review date: 15 Apr 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival