It’s one thing to decide to give your show what you consider to be a hilarious title but, as Rose Matafeo is discovering, then you have to tell people. Like your family. “It’s been very hard showing my family members, [who ask] ‘what’s your next show, what is it called?’ And having to tell your parents that it’s called Horn Dog and they’re like, ‘Okaaaaaay, alright, cool. Sounds good?’” She laughs from a world away; Matafeo’s in London, where she’s based. “I mean, even telling my Nan is very funny, because it’s more just like ignoring the fact it’s called Horn Dog. You pretty much whisper it.”
However, her family all think the title and Matafeo herself is funny and, almost as importantly, so do judges on awards panels. Matafeo was nominated for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Best Newcomer award in 2016 and last year took out the Fred Award for the best show at the NZ International Comedy Festival, after having won the Billy T award there a few years prior. She’s a TV star in her native New Zealand, and has been popping up on TV here as well, appearing on Ten’s Have You Been Paying Attention and Squinters on ABC. “Expect her to be big,” predicted The Age in its four star review.
Her likeability on stage is infectious, charming entire audiences, and by the end of her show last year – where she contrasted romcom tropes against her own life – you left wanting her to be your Sassy Best Friend. This year she’s tackling her passions, or, in other words, what makes her horny. The idea originated from a chat with her improv troupe, Snort, who she will also be performing with here in Australia.
“We were talking about how many people we ever kissed in our lives. And I went in thinking nine was a pretty decent solid number and then was truly crestfallen when I figured out that’s pretty low for a 26-year-old, especially in comedy. So I thought it would be a funny thing to write a show about. And how, perhaps, I focus my attentions and energies, in the last ten years since I had my first kiss, on other things. It’s just sort of a show about things that I am horny for, I suppose, and passionate about and like,” she says.
In addition to men, those passions extend to things like crochet, the colour mustard and the discography of Captain and Tennille, a husband and wife duo who were big back in the 1970s. “Captain and Tennille is an amazing metaphor for my general vibe when it comes to dudes, which is like just loving guys who clearly hate me. I’ve just been obsessed watching YouTube videos of them because the Captain, like it’s so clear it’s such a loveless relationship. He looks at her with such contempt, it’s insane and I am obsessed with that,” she says.
