Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Making her solo festival debut a year after being selected for the prestigious Comedy Zone line-up of up-and-comers, Rachael Hornbuckle has an assertive stage presence and a dark, cynical sense of humour.

Yet her inexperience also shows in some questionable punchlines and the fact this feels less like a show with purpose than a selection of short real-life anecdotes culled from her club sets. 

Too often she hits familiar angles, already proven to get laughs from a  previous generation of comedians, rather than seeking her own path. ‘Old white men’ almost certainly deserve to be a punchline, but it would be nice to have context rather than just scoring easy points for saying so, for example.

As a long-serving nurse she has a dark sense of humour, especially from her time in an abortion clinic. But even allowing for the gallows humour of her job, calling an intensive care patient a ‘vegetable’ for the sake of a gag feels unforgivable, and leaves an unpleasant taste that it’s hard to shake. 

Yet some of her genuine first-hand stories are amusing, as is her take on some of the less grateful Google reviews left for hospitals where she’s worked. 

The last ten minutes of her show, which only ran for 40, were dedicated to the evils of cosmetic surgery, and the psychology of trying to fix superficial ‘flaws’. But it was too earnest as she sought to make points other than seek laughs. She now works at a cosmetic surgery clinic sometimes – which may give her insight, but it’s not an ethical contradiction she particularly dives into.

It all feeds into the feeling that  Hornbuckle committed to performing full show before she was really ready for the challenge. 

• Rachael Hornbuckle: Skin Deep and Meaningful is on at the Chinese Museum at 6.10pm (5.10pm Sundays) until April 19.

Review date: 13 Apr 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett