Hot Brown Honey delivered much of what was promised in the show outline; fierce, femme social activism on stage delivered with vigour.
But was it laugh-out-loud funny? Not really. When placed side-by-side with the slew of offerings that the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival provides, if it were to come down to laughs per minute being the measure of success, then Hot Brown Honey’s current offering, 'The Remix' doesn’t exactly hit the mark.
As a show in any other context, outside of Australia’s biggest comedy festival, this is one heck of an offering. Hot Brown Honey are a bad ass group of fierce global First Nations women who are here to smash stereotypes and unapologetically celebrate who they are – and who we all are. There’s a truck-load of talent on stage in a performance that blends elements of theatre, circus, poetry, hip hop, and dance. Highlights of the show came when individual performers were able to let their unique talents shine, with Maya Muto living up to her nickname of ‘The Gravity Defier’ in an incredible and captivating rope climbing aerial performance. Matehaere Hope Haami delivered amazing beatboxing which had the crowd transfixed, and another highlight was a clever parody of the fetishisation of Polynesian dancers by Hollywood and international travellers, delivered expertly by Lisa Fa’alafi.
Quick costume changes and clever uses of the set showed the slick production skills that have gone into pulling this show together, however with that in mind, there were elements that could have been a lot tighter and helped to lift the energy.
The show began with a drawn-out call and response section, with the same phrases repeated a number of times over – two or three times would have worked far better than, say, seven. As the show progressed, the crowd began to whoop and cheer loudly and unreservedly in agreement with the statements being made, and powerful and important statements they are, however a few of the sketches missed the chance to go further and do more. One parody of 'dick swinging' boy bands and toxic masculinity had the performers swinging literal (well, fake) penises, however it was a one-joke bit that went for more than three minutes and quickly got tired – it would have been awesome to see it go further and take the joke to other places. For a show that truly does so much in telling stories we don’t get to hear as often as we should and amplifying messages that need to be heard, there was also a lot of times where sketches just went for the obvious low-hanging fruit rather than pushing to the next level.
A high energy, entertaining and exciting show, 'The Remix' has a lot to like scattered throughout and is certainly the kind of show that should be included in an arts festival line-up anywhere in Australia – but didn't entirely shine in a comedy context.
