Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

This almost sounds like a parable from Greek myth, the woman who hates fun yet is condemned to walk the earth bringing it to so many others…

The premise of the latest of Claire Hooper’s many Melbourne comedy festival shows is that, by most measures, she is not the life-and-soul. She prefers silence to music, staying in to going out, and really doesn’t want to celebrate her upcoming 50th birthday in any way whatsoever. 

She suspects she’s not the only one, astutely observing that while kids define a fun time by the things they do, adults define it by the things they don’t have to do. No cooking! No emails! This she categorises as ‘type one’ fun, when life just seems easy. Type two fun is the sort that requires effort to leave the house to seek out, ultimately more rewarding as you feel you’ve earned it… not that she ever really wants to put in that work. Plus so many types of fun has consequences, sometimes life-changing.

This is all highly relatable observational comedy - especially resonant for those at a similar point in life – and well vocalised via Hooper’s astute theories and witty way of expressing them.

Her genial anecdotes are rooted in the domestic, most involving her more conventionally fun hubby Wade, and their two children, which gives the gig a familiar intimacy. That Wade happens to be in the audience for this performance only adds to that effect.

Despite the former Great Australian Bake Off host’s best efforts to keep gender out of her parenting style, the comic finds herself acting as a typical ‘mum’ – which becomes very apparent when her own mother’s around and the fussing gets competitive. Rounding off the supporting cast are her dad, battling health problems, and mate Geraldine Hickey, trying to persuade her that bird-watching is fun.

The stand-out story, however, involves Hooper taking her daughter to see her nine-year-old perform a rock gig at an open mic night where they seemed out of place. It’s a tale that consolidates many of the ideas that bubble quitely under the jolly anecdotes Hooper relates.

Nor is it the only one. By the end, the strands subtly come together, making the hour more substantial and rewarding than the sum of its constituent parts which often seem, for want of a better phrase, just a bit of fun. She has lured you in unknowingly.

Getting out to any comedy gig is a ‘type two’ endeavour, but if it’s Hooper’s, the effort is most certainly worth it.  

• Claire Hooper: Fun Show xx is on at QT Melbourne at 6.15pm (5.15pm Sundays; no show Mondays) until April 19.

Review date: 7 Apr 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival