Laura Davis has no trouble making herself vulnerable on stage.
Her 2015 festival show Ghost Machine saw her discuss her fears in life, bullying, reluctant sex and her boring job, all while fascinatingly cloaked in a white bed sheet, and with torches taped to her legs illuminating her ghoulish face.
“I found having a sheet over my head made people really want to get to know me,” says Davis. “The moment you remove your face and body from them, people are like, “Oh ok, we’re going really pay attention to what’s she’s saying because we want to know what’s under there’.”
This year, Davis inverts that theme. In Marco. Polo. she’ll perform her whole set blindfolded, and attempt to get to know the crowd each night through games of trust.
“I kind of want to recreate that feeling of playing the swimming pool game as a kid, when you can’t see anybody, but you know all your friends around you and you feel quite safe.
“It’s not a psychological experiment or anything, just a funny game of finding out who’s in the crowd. I really like the idea of making a show just for the audience who came in on that particular night, and seeing how universally relevant we can make it.”
While the subject matter of Ghost Machine was sometimes dark, Davis’ cathartic and intimate delivery warmed the hearts of fans and critics alike, and she was awarded the Golden Gibbo for the best independent show at the 2015 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, along with Best Comedy Show at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
It left the former Raw Comedy Winner under pressure to follow up her success, a pressure which she says partly explains her wildcard show idea.
“What’s been really fun lately is I’ve kind of been garnering a wider audience. A lot of people are taking a punt on me now whereas in previous years I’ve only kind of had a small cult following,” she says. “So this show is a bit of an experiment, you know, to see how much I can get to know a set of people without putting too much tax on them – there’s not actually that much audience interaction in it.
“I’m completely oblivious to the audience as they come in. I won’t be checking ticket sales, I won’t know how many people are in the room, just to make them laugh and reach out into that complete blackness I think will be a really fun thing to explore.”
Davis says exploring a slightly lighter topic – that of “trust” – was also important too, given it’s something everyone can relate to.
Marco. Polo. is similar in objective to its predecessor in its desire to give people a unique experience that touches on personal truths for both performer and audience.
“I really like having an audience come in, not be sure what they’re going to see, see something completely different that they’ve never encountered before, and have them leave feeling like it was just for them,” says Davis.
“I improvise a lot in my shows and it’s always directed so that each show is for the people who come to see it on that night, rather than something that’s the same cookie cutter every single night and the audience just changes.”
By Alexander Darling
Venue: ACMI – Games Room, Federation Square, CBD
Dates: March 24 – April 17
Times: 9.30pm (Sundays 8.30pm)
Tickets: $20 – $25
