Comedy shows don’t need to be light and carefree to deliver an excellent time.
In fact, as Rose Bishop artfully demonstrates in her new hour, 'A Matter Of Time', you can have a very pleasant time listening to someone share a rather horrific life experience.
Rose is a joyful master of getting into the darkest of jokes with gleeful innocence. And while very funny moments of the show did come from some of the goofiest jokes (her passing bit about the differences between gym franchises will probably live in my head rent-free for life), these allowed space for the more profound and emotionally unsettling material to breathe and do what it needed to do; leave the audience in fits of laughter.
As I discovered over the course of the show, Rose is the kind of person that I would like to have deliver bad news to me; she would be gentle and kind, no doubt, but somehow would have you in a fit of laughter even if she was carefully explaining that your most loved family member had died in a horrific accident.
As the title infers, this is a show about the passing of time, and what comes after time – and people, have passed. Rose explores the many quirky facets of what happens after someone she loved immensely had died unexpectedly, and while that might seem like a confronting concept for a comedy show, anyone who has been through a similar experience will know that it’s a concept ripe for the picking. Death – and the admin, rituals and bizarre experiences that come with it, are frankly hilarious. If you’re a subscriber to the ‘we might as well laugh otherwise we’d cry’ approach to life, then you’ll absolutely get this.
In a beautifully bashful way, and while not the intention of the show, Rose delivers a special tribute to her friend. The way she talks about the love they shared for each other shows that they had a special bond and, based on the wild and wonderful stories that are shared in this surprisingly upbeat hour of grim experiences, I think that Rose’s friend would have been tickled to be remembered and honoured like this.
There are stories about misadventures with comedowns during house inspections, poo eating dogs and pervy cats delivered hand-in-hand with the grim realities of life, all neatly packed into a rollercoaster, hour-long ride. Fitting, funny and perfect as a tribute and as a choice of show this Comedy Festival.
