Review by Steve Bennett at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Newish comedian Fran Middleton starts her show in the boilerplate way of the Gaulier-trained oddball: creating a weird atmosphere and deliberately making the audience unsure what she’s doing – only that she’s doing it for much longer than is comfortable. 

There’s a bit of anticipation, a bit of nervous laughter as her wide, staring eyes dare you to give her the reaction she craves with a child-like mix of vulnerability and defiance. With jokes that don’t quite stack up and peculiar physical business that seems to say ‘look what I can get away with’, these are just the sort of jinks that we’ve seen plenty of since Doctor Brown brought them into the festival mainstream – and which, frankly, is getting a bit tiresome.

But gradually the oddness takes form, and her expressive manner – not to mention her commitment to the performance – win you over. The ‘fiery’ ‘accident’ might be the turning point, as she starts to make a virtue of the show’s low-budget shoddiness, and the priority seems to shift from ideas that bemuse to ones that amuse.

The tone remains absurd, but she tells stories with proper form, does creative physical sketches with identifiable punchlines – whether it’s an amusingly placed avocado or a rather grubby reveal –  and allows her charm as a performer to permeate that weirdo facade.

For Middleton certainly has a certain élan in the spotlight that makes you like her, a valuable currency she seems happy to squander in the first half, but once invested in a more accessible form (if not content, she would never want to be that conventional), starts paying dividends.  

• Fran Middleton: Ceiling Fran has now finished its run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Review date: 11 Apr 2017
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett