When Adelaide Fringe audience members enter The Bally at Gluttony on a Saturday night to see ‘Mel McGlensey Is Normal’, their eyes are drawn to a box mounted on a stool on the small stage where they are invited to write the most normal thing they can think of. With amusement and some trepidation, the box fills.
Mel McGlensey faces the audience as a simulated robot version of herself called ‘Nor-Mel’. In this show, the ‘Real Mel’ is trapped in a simulation, where to be released she must be ‘normal’ for one whole hour.
The question, ‘what is normal?’, is determined by the audience throughout the performance. The show opens with a hello from ‘Nor-Mel’ and crowd work. In this performance, audience participation is key, and tonight the audience is happy to oblige, erupting into laughter with each interaction. An audience member in the front row is handed yellow and red penalty flags at points during the evening, trusted to throw these warnings on the stage if things start to feel weird. It does get weird, but it is well executed and very funny. As the show progresses, the audience is offered multiple choices to determine which path ‘Real Mel’ will take.
The audience meets the imprisoned ‘Real Mel’ who emerges briefly from mind-numbing ‘normal’ torture, such as sudoku and bread baking, to urgently plead for freedom.
The technology that creates this ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ style story is brilliantly designed by McGlensey's husband, collaborator and game designer Douglas Wilson. Wilson features briefly in the show, offering the audience a behind-the-scenes look at how the show is arranged.
A winner of the 2024 Adelaide Fringe Best Comedy award for her show, ‘Motorboat’, McGlensey has been amassing fans over the years. Perhaps an indication of McGlensey’s growing popularity over this time comes a skit called ‘Fan Art’, with ‘Real Mel’ presenting the audience with several artworks given to her by fans following both shows.
The audience has been engrossed and amused for the entire hour. Those in attendance deem the Real Mel McGlensey to be ‘normal.’ but there is still the burning question of what normal actually is and whether it lives up to the hype. Normality is determined by audience participation, and every show has the potential to run a different course with a different outcome.
‘Mel McGlensey Is Normal’ is a brilliantly designed and executed, family-unfriendly show that delivers the laughs while also leaving some audience members pondering if they themselves are normal.
