THURSDAY 9 December saw a capacity house at the Dark Arts Café and Bar for Kelly Mac’s maiden run of her new show ‘Wrong Side of 50’.

After a great warm up set from local radio identity and award-winning comedian Ben Stevenson, Kelly hit the stage with her trademark enthusiasm.

Apologising in advance for the one bad pun and a possibly bad accent to come, she launched into a non-stop no punches pulled exposition of the joys of being a woman on the ‘wrong side of 50’.

From dealing with millennials, and explaining why your husband can’t be your best friend (which included an interesting audience participation exchange), to the unexpected impacts of aging on your sex life, all the way to reality tv, the laughs kept coming from the rapt audience.

Never one to shy away from the tough stuff, Kel informed that audience that unlike many other contemporary female comedians she doesn’t do ‘dick’ jokes, and then proceeded to bring the house down with a monologue based on the trials and tribulations of female sexuality after 50 years of age.

At the start of the night Kelly asked the audience to demonstrate how they might react to the funniest thing they ever heard, then a reasonably entertaining gag, and finally the response to one that falls flat.

Your correspondent is delighted to say that the latter never happened with this performance, and the rolling reaction throughout hovered above the reasonably entertaining gag response to full on roars of laughter.

Some polishing will be required for one or two sections of the show, but for a first outing of new material it worked beautifully.

Three and a half stars from me.

Kelly Mac will now take this show to the Adelaide Fringe Festival in March next year.

 

BY David TUNE