This is the fourth year in a row that Brown Women Comedy has put together a show for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Hosted and curated by the dynamo that is Daizy Maan, it’s a concept that grew out of the Australian South Asian Centre, a community-based initiative with a mission to “amplify and empower South Asian women making a difference”.
This year’s approach is noticeably different to last year’s, which had a revolving line-up of performers that could number up to half a dozen.
Limiting the line-up to four really excellent stand-ups is a great move. All of the performers have time to gauge their audience, settle into their routines, find the sweet spots and indulge in some impertinent crowd work, if and when appropriate.
Maan tops and tails the show, followed by the dryly self-deprecating Niv Prakasam, the gleeful Ramya Ramapriya and the sneakily brilliant Kru Harale.
While Maan and Harale are locals, Prakasam and Ramapriya are international guests from southern India (the former from Tamil Nadu and the latter from Bengaluru), so their outsiders’ eyes bring a fresh slant to things that Melburnians take for granted. Although perhaps there are quite a few of us who have often remarked upon the potential misunderstandings caused by the ‘make way for peds’ signs on our zebra crossings (even if only inside our own heads).
Attitudes to sex in India compared with Australia give Prakasam a rich vein of comic material, while the whole idea of being told to ‘go back where you came from’ is a gift that keeps on giving for more than one of the line-up.
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All four are so strong, however, that to pull out any one performance for special mention feels wrong. For this reviewer, though, the extended joke of the night has to go to Harale’s beautifully original take on job stealing, traditional owners and a computer operator called Gary. Just inspired.
Tickets: $40-$49
Brown Women Comedy will be performed at fortyfivedownstairs, Flinders Lane until 20 April 2024 as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF 2025).
