Melanie Bracewell is a dynamic storyteller who’s 6’1” and was diagnosed with ADHD at a ‘later age in life.’ When she finally admits she’s only 30 years old and that she’s always running late you realise the joke has come full circle and this is a comedian who loves wordplay and exaggeration, both of which she uses to great effect.
Aging plays a part in the early part of her show and she even gets the audience involved by asking a guy called Ethan in the front row who old she is. When he says 28, her response is ‘he’s trying to fuck me.’ It’s obvious to all that she’s not old, but there is something about turning 30 that is hard for a lot of people and her way of referencing that is to say she’s joined a pharmacy loyalty scheme and amusingly infers she’s on that slippery slope to dotage.
She says she’s constantly told she should freeze her eggs, ‘just in case’ and ‘it’s never too early to do so, to which she replies to the older women who mostly say this ‘it’s never too early to go coffin shopping.’ Her wit is incisive and just a bit subversive.
Much of her show consists of personal anecdotes such as having trouble sleeping or her earlier tortured single life. She admits to dating some curious men that she refers to as the ‘four guys of the apocalypse’ yet she eventually settled down with the man she descrives as her autistic fiancé. They seem made for each other, she can’t tie shoe laces but he can – a match made in heaven.
But his forgetfulness leads to a very long, well constructed and very funny riff about recycling bins and a nefarious neighbourhood conspiracy. The relationship also provided comedy gold in the form of a tale about flying back to NZ in business class and making a fool of herself in front of Taika Waititi during the flight.
Melanie Bracewell is a polished performer who is confident and charming and definitely knows how to weave together a fascinating set of funny stories.
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