OBSERVER: Small Poppy
Gabbi Bolt opens her set, saying she feels like she’s in a SIM world, designed by a 10-year-old trying to find her way out of a pool with no ladder.
Next up, she performs an original song lamenting the vagaries of fate. What if fate phoned in your choices on your day? That would explain a lot.
Bolt has been trying to change her luck. This takes effort, such as endlessly searching for four-leaf clovers, carefully avoiding walking under ladders, and sidestepping cracks.
Her luck-changing quest is to make up for the year she spent as an eight-year-old dancing with an open umbrella in her bedroom to Rihanna.
Bolt combines stand-up musings with musical comedy. She also has a well-developed funny bone, so expect the unexpected.
Bolt started playing piano at age three, miraculously belting out the Rugrats theme unprompted and by ear.
We career down some strange pathways, lurching through ancient history, and pondering existential angst.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, a Roman emperor who invaded a city called, wait for it, Gabbi, gets a rapping history lesson.
The etymology of the word virality, contemplating personality hires, and the benefits of a Commie boyfriend become subjects for lyrics and laughs.
In between these cogitations, Bolt belts out more parody numbers ranging from Charli XCX to rap.
Next, Bolt dons a piano accordion, a “risky top,” and a British accent for It Girl, and follows with a deliberation on billionaires.
In particular, the wealthy’s clothing choices in wanting to look like the rest of us plebs.
Through it all, Bolt moves effortlessly, offering witty observations wrapped around an eclectic mix of funny songs.
Until April 19
The Malthouse, Playbox
comedyfestival.com.au
Review by Kathryn Keeble