If Anisa Nandaula’s current Melbourne International Comedy Festival show has all the hallmarks of a young comedian on the rise, the Australian debut of Hong Kong’s Matireyi Karanth is a rather different proposition – and that’s to do with not only the venue, but the size of the audience.
One of the best things about MICF is how it gives audiences the opportunity to discover previously unheard-of venues – big and small – across the CBD. However, not all of them are conducive to stand up.
In an alleyway off Little Bourke Street, Baller’s Clubhouse spreads out across several floors. Tucked away in a side room of the complex is the space Karanth uses for Maitriarchy. But multifunctional spaces such as this can be tricky.
Maitreyi Karanth review – quick links
Unfortunate staging
The sound of the club outside the room is slightly problematic, though it doesn’t overwhelm Karanth’s set and, it could even be argued, perhaps lends a bit of atmosphere. The same, however, cannot be said for the lighting in the space. One cold white light on Karanth herself is decidedly unwelcoming for the crowd and unflattering for the performer.
It’s a credit to Karanth that she still manages to keep the audience onside with such an unappealing visual tableau.
This set is the absolute epitome of a resolute performer working at her hardest to perform in trying conditions. She’s glamorously dressed up for the occasion, she’s carefully done her make-up and she’s here to entertain.
Diehard trouper
Despite the limited audience numbers at the show attended, Karanth was indefatigable in her approach. She has a lot of material – about marriage, about travel, about sexuality (particularly from the perspective of a mature Indian woman) – and she delivers it with punch and persistence. And she doesn’t hang around between jokes.
Even with a limited attendance, she is unafraid to work the crowd, singling out a Fijian Indian and his partner at the Saturday show and easily persuading them to change seats and move down to the front. That takes ovaries, because if they’d refused, that would have left her with nowhere to go and potentially egg on her face.
This is where experience shows. Now in her early 50s, Karanth has only been doing stand-up since her 40s. While her stand up career may have started later than many in the business, she clearly has enough life experience to know how to handle a room.
ArtsHub: All Melbourne International Comedy Festival reviews
Familiar material
Every year at MICF there seem to be common themes and topics. This year pubic hair appears to be one of them, with both Karanth and Anisa Nandaula ploughing into the subject for extended gags. In the former’s case, the material is perhaps more refreshing than hilarious – in that it’s good to see and hear from such an underrepresented demographic as middle-aged Asian women speaking with cheerful candour about bodies, sexuality and desire.
The least successful moment for this reviewer is a rehash of a Gary Delaney one-liner – the old ‘don’t eat anything fatty’ gag, where the joke is all about the placing of the comma. It has been slightly structurally reordered and is not as well delivered by Karanth, so doesn’t really work.
On the other hand, however, the highlight of the show is a reading of an ‘unromantic’ story featuring a couple in the crowd. For us, it was the Fijian Indian and his partner, who took being the stars of the ribald but undeniably funny short essay in very good humour and didn’t seem to mind us laughing uproariously at it and, by extension, them at all. Just as well really.
Now, if Ballers could just fix that lighting issue…
