Review: Bridget Hassed at Queen Victoria Women’s Centre

Review by Greg Gorton

Bridget Hassed’s solo show for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival might be the most difficult to review. It had me laughing the entire night through, but when I try to put down on paper what it is I most loved about her, I struggle to do it justice.

You see, Hassed’s show is completely, utterly, generic. On paper, there isn’t anything new or different to point my finger at, and it would be easy to mistake that reality as unappealing. I can only try my best to convince you that “generic” isn’t as plain as you think it is, and a comedian who perfects all the expected parts of a stand up show ends up making something very special.

I said generic and I meant it. Even the show title, “Live Stand Up Comedy Show Female Comedian Local Comedy Festival Event” tells you nothing about what you will see. But there is so much intelligence in that title that you have to truly respect it. For one, it is a tongue-twister even the artist struggles with. It’s the second-longest title, and while Hassed says she is annoyed by that, I suspect that she secretly removed a word in order to not take the top spot. And finally, most cleverly, this title means that when you search “female comedian” on the MICF website, only her show turns up.

The topics of the night are also, on the surface, generic. Dating as you leave your twenties, what you would be willing to do to make it big, and many self-deprecating jokes about the poverty of artists and the undeserved egos they still have. However, Hassed has a way of presenting these topics with a dry Australian humour that contradicts words of desperation. While Celia Pacquola is mentioned as the imagined entry to the higher levels of comedy, Hassed’s approach reminds me more of a very (VERY) younger Judith Lucy.

Hassed, like many comics in today’s MICF, offers some multimedia aspects to her show, and her clever advertisement break knows exactly where to stick the knife into different industries while maintaining a self-deprecating view of herself. There are also powerpoint slides as Hassed points out other “occupations” they are willing to take if not stand up comedians, and a funny “thank you” reel at the end of the show. These multimedia parts of the night may not have a large impact on the production as a whole, they do serve to show off Hassed’s many talents.

I think if other comics created a show that was 75% a hustle to get more work, it would come off as a little crass, and too much of a “one joke show” for it to work. A little too much without imagination. It would be like making a horror movie where all you did was talk about and portray the most cliched aspects of horror movies before it. So I guess, if you wanted to, you could call Bridget Hassed the Wes Craven of Australian comedy, but only if you were willing to pay her for it.

I don’t know if I’ve gotten it across properly. I’m not as talented as Hassed. But if you want to see generic comedy that isn’t, and support an independent artist that should truly be bigger, go and see “Live Stand Up Comedy Show Female Comedian Local Comedy Festival Event” while you still can.