DeAnne Smith certainly has come into her own. Her comedy has swagger, she is at home on the stage. No tricks, novelties, songs or videos. Nothing. Just lights up on a lesbian with Tina Fey’s smile and Peter Pan’s hair ready to tell a bunch of jokes.
It is a less structured show than other years, which provides her with room to move. Loose and playful could descend into an unrehearsed mess, but not in Smith’s capable hands. She works the room without it ever feeling like she is ticking the box of audience interaction, it’s comedy conversation, which she smoothly incorporates back into the show. As the man behind remarked leaving the show, “That was a professional comedian.”
She works through the über hipster-ness of Fitzroy, how to make a romantic playlist, the best ways to improve an Amsterdam sex show. She does it with ease, more like you are at the pub with a hilarious new friend rather than paying for an hour of joy.
BY JACK FRANKLIN
