New Zealand comedian Melanie Bracewell is coming to Australia this March/April, and where Melanie goes, drama is sure to follow.
That's the plan anyway, as Melanie is bringing her new hour of stand-up 'Melodrama', the follow-up to 'Brace Yourself'.
“My previous show was called 'Brace Yourself', so I'm really just following a bit of a trend, I think,” Melanie says of naming her shows.
“I definitely came up with the pun name before I wrote the show, but as I was writing it I was like 'oh my god, I really am a melodramatic person'. My life is pretty good but I tend to overanalyse any tiny little details of my life, I don't know why.
“So that's basically what the show is about – it's about the kind of trials and tribulations of my very privileged lifestyle basically. There's a little bit of real drama in there but I don't want to spoil it too much. It's basically just an hour of comedy that went well in New Zealand and got some awards, so I hope Australia likes it too.”
To say her show “went well” in New Zealand is a slight understatement, when the truth is Melanie sold out her entire run and received the Billy T Award. But getting Melanie to talk herself up is like... Well, trying to get a Kiwi to talk themselves up.
“I'm trying to be a real humble Kiwi over here,” she laughs, “but 'it was spectacular and it's going to change your life forever' is what I should say, right? Not 'it was just fine'. You just don't want to come across as arrogant ever in New Zealand, so we really downplay any achievement like: 'whatever, it's fine'.”
As an observational comedian, Melanie says her tendency to overanalyse has been her strongest tool in making audiences laugh.
“It's good to be an over-observant person and over-think everything in your entire life,” she says.
Having throughly road-tested 'Melodrama' back home, Melanie is confident the show is in fact, quite funny.
“At this point it's at a stage that it is definitely funny, I have determined. I can confirm it's definitely funny,” she reports.
Melanie has also been seen on our screens as a panellist on 'Have You Been Paying Attention' and says that when all else fails, Australian politics makes the perfect comedy fodder.
“I feel like your politics is ripe for the picking, it's great,” she says.
“You've got people like Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter that are just what the comedy world needs. [New Zealand] has a bit of political comedy but it's slightly more muted than what you guys have. I watch a bit of Aussie news when I go over to do the show so I at least have a vague idea of what's going on.”
Coming from a country where the people actually elect their Prime Minsters, keeping up with who's running Australia can be a challenge.
“That's the main thing,” Melanie says, “every time I go to Australia I have to Google who the Prime Minister is.”
Melanie Bracewell Tour Dates
27 March-21 April – Mantra On Russell (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)26-28 April – Factory Theatre (Sydney Comedy Festival)
