Cara Josephine, Josie Long, MICF 2015 Supper Room, Town Hall until the 19th April.
How is it already the tail end of the 2015 Melbourne International Comedy Festival? That has all gone past rather fast this year. My approach to the comedy festival generally involves outsourcing my comedy ticket selection and procurement to fellow MRB reviewer Jamie.^ There is one exception to this outsourcing; I discovered Josie Long through some separate non-Jamie comedy adventure a few years ago and try to see her show when she is performing in Melbourne.
Long’s 2015 show ‘Cara Josephine’ covers familiar comedic ground; love, heartbreak, relationships and family. Long’s energetic and genuine performance, however, does not feel in any way like a weary revisiting of a well-known landscape. Instead this is a funny~ and self-explorative journey through heartbreak and the complex process of recovery, Josie Long style. As expected there are snippets of the political in Long’s distressed response to the politics of her home and her sharehouse based rebellion against class by doing ‘highminded art things aggressively’* with a 24/7 classical music soundtrack. The inevitable post-break up phase of self-improvement also makes its appearance. A phase which for Long is not limited to rock climbing but also includes the reading of poets so unknown that not even the poetry world knows them.
As a consumer of stories the main appeal of Long’s comedy to me is her storytelling ability. And this is evident in ‘Cara Josephine’ where even the most disparate tangent is woven back into the main narrative of the show. The central narrative is well paced between funny and poignant moments interspersed with the dramatic 1930s film noir slang wielding narration. And as the show ends Long wraps up the story revealing the meaning behind the title of ‘Cara Josephine’ and the audience is released back into the wild with an echo of Long’s un-suppressible energy and optimism.
^I highly recommend this method of going to shows I’ve seen some excellent comedy this way and its super stress free. Though you all have to go find your own version of Jamie. MRB Jamie is otherwise engaged finding funny shows for me to go see.
~Yes it is actually funny, strange thing for a comedy show I know.
*Seriously where has this lifestyle choice been all my life.
