Review by Lorelei Mathias at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Star of topical sketch show The Leak, Mifsud is an accomplished comic actor and regular on the Melbourne circuit, but this is her first full-length stand-up show. 

In it, she tells of how she jettisoned her once perfect life as a Paris tour guide and moved to Melbourne only to watch her life fall to pieces as she slowly entered a sofa-bound human burrito of a depression. Clever observations run through her set – about life as a jobbing creative trapped in a world of small talk and hateful admin. This might sound like well-trodden turf, but not with the Mifsud take on it. There’s a happy ending, too. Eventually, she tells us, she pulls herself out of her black dog burrito by doing stand-up, and finding away to laugh at the dark.

There’s a slickness and a confidence rarely seen in someone so fresh. She boldly addresses the packed-out room in her own quirky, sophisticated style – ‘isn’t that right, Friday Night?’ And never mind that she’s a Francophone, this girl has a whole kooky lexicon of her own: ‘doodle juice,’ ‘pumice pussy,’ and ‘swaddle’ among the highlights. She also has a unique take on the ancient Chinese proverb.

Mifsud’s set has sparkling imagery and shrewd one-liners running through it. The highlights are the section on medicinal masturbation, the image of heartbreak being like a shit-drenched cartwheel, and her horrifying portrayal of adult acne.

The pay-off to the title is perhaps a little too brief and perfunctory – it’s a wonderful image which it would have been nice to spend longer exploring. The ending takes you by bawdy surprise, but is a brilliantly performed piece of physical comedy with a witty denouement.

As a show that touches on mental illness, this is perhaps a more accessible, lighter 60 minutes than Richard Gadd’s brilliantly intense Monkey See Monkey Do, but both are essential viewing as celebrations of how comedy is the best therapy. 

Overall, Sinkful of Forks is an hour with an uplifting take-out. We are our own responsibility, we need to be our own carers because no other chomp will. And, perhaps more pertinent for others following their creative calling despite the financial struggle, there’s Mifsud's mantra:  ‘Failure isn’t as scary as wasting your potential.’

Indeed, part of Sinkful of Forks is about how hard she has been working this year on comedy, so as not to waste this potential. This hard work has clearly paid off. Her time has come, and hopefully her receptionist days are behind her.

Review date: 8 Apr 2017
Reviewed by: Lorelei Mathias