Original Review:

But that’s just another episode in Alison Bice’s unlucky life, as recounted in this 55-minute catalogue of klutziness.

As she self-effacingly recounts one misfortune after another, this personable 23-year-old cuts a sympathetic figure. But while these are tales that would endear her to you over a glass of wine in a bar, they don’t quite pack the punch to really elevate the broadly enjoyable into a must-see show.

She hits the ground strongly, with a well-executed routine about her messed-up Mum, who laminates the most bizarre scraps of ephemera for posterity and continues to bombard her with Tweety cartoon merchandise – even though she hates the cutesy cartoon budgie. On the evidence presented in this show, there’s more than a touch of the Looney Tunes about Bice herself, cutting an emotionally clumsy figure as she entangles herself into all sorts of awkward situations.

Yarns about a flatulent patient she shared a hospital ward with, or the terrible time she had at the Edinburgh Fringe last year are amusing, thought she can’t quite imbue them with the empathy we need to really get on board. It might be down to a delivery that’s rather distant, with eyes focussed on the horizon rather than the audience. But then her mother, the subject of so much of her material, is in the sparsely populated room tonight, so perhaps she can forgiven for not wanting to engage too much with us.

As a comedian, Bice feels like work in progress, with a winning personality and a decent bank of anecdotes, but not yet able to combine them to their most potent effect. But when she susses how to do that, the finished product will surely be worth witnessing. Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Melbourne, April 2009