adelaide fringe comedy review: adelaide’s best break-up revenge
I really wanted to love Adelaide’s Best Break-up Revenge. I wanted Aj Rae’s comedy show about the break-up of a two-year relationship to be awesomely funny and cathartic and a launching pad for a brilliant career. But instead I felt like I’d run into a somewhat drunk girl in a bar bathroom who was angrily ranting about her ex. Which I might find funny or feel sympathetic about (at least for a while), except that I couldn’t escape this rant for an hour. I came away feeling that she was in greater need of some counselling than a paying audience.
Her subject (read: victim) was Chet Faker, a thinly veiled pseudonym so thinly veiled that it only took a guess and a light facebook search to figure out who he is. But this doesn’t inherently make the show any better or worse, it’s really just testament to how something like this has the potential to destroy someone’s reputation in a city like Adelaide (which Rae openly admits to wanting to do). But nonetheless, I don’t believe this did in fact do much to tarnish his reputation. It certainly makes him look like a doofus but Rae’s mission to make him undateable says far more about her than it does about him.
I am all for women talking about sex, and even better, making light of it, but as Rae spoke of chili in her “hot tamale” and being known as “threesome girl”, it seemed to have about as much relevance as the rampant small-penis jokes so popular amongst amateur male stand-ups. That’s also roughly how funny it was (read: not at all). But we all know that embarrassing someone sexually is scraping the bottom of the barrel, and it really just exemplified Rae’s immaturity rather than saying anything about her ex.
To her credit, her energy remained high throughout the show and she trudged on despite the lack of audience reaction. People were visibly awkward and not wanting to participate, but she performed vivaciously right through to the end.
There are essentially two options around this show: either Chet Faker is not that bad and Rae has a crazy fixation on him, or he was that bad and it’s genuinely upsetting and unfortunate that she has spent so much time and energy obsessing over him.
Ultimately what was missing from this show was heart. People don’t tend to put this much effort into things they don’t care about, which leads me to think that Rae was obviously hurt by the relationship and/or her ex, but there’s no sincerity in this show. The tedium I experienced while watching it just convinced me that you really shouldn’t air your dirty laundry when it’s this fresh. Not (necessarily) out of respect to whoever else is involved, but because you don’t yet have the perspective to realise that no one finds your breakups nearly as interesting as you do.
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I’m at a cross road, hearing a bad review for my ex girl friends show in makes me almost happy in a spiteful way, but at the same token the last few years with aj has been very unplesent at times, (not to say there wasn’t good times too) there was some truth to her twisted tales, but all and all, it has been a very unplesent experience, I have so many negative things to say that would only just be me trying to justify myself as a decent person, but the bottom line is, aj is not emotionally stable at times, and can be quite brutal, cutting and selfish. I blame the drugs and alcohol. Because if she didn’t have them so deep in her system I could safely say I would still be quite happy together playn ukuleles.
I’m sad you didn’t like the show as much as I did.
Everything I said was true; his lack of education, racism and unsuitability as a sexually experimental youth.
Ernest Hemmingway said “write hard and clear about what hurts” and I now feel I can draw a line under the experience and start afresh. With jokes about Unicorns, or some other unappealing banality.
Finally, although we have been separated for 6months, ‘Chet’ enjoyed my show so much that the very next day he asked me out on another date, and 4days before writing the review above this one, vomited all over himself and cried because I refused to taxi back to his house.
Lord save me from those I meet and allow to enter into my life. Dunja, I will invite you to the next one, and you can find out how many unicorns it takes to change a light bulb. . .
I wasn’t calling into question the truth of what you said Aija, but rather its appeal to a greater audience.
Thanks to both of you for your comments, however this really isn’t the forum for post-relationship politics. Whatever you need to say to each other or about each other, this isn’t the place to do it.
anyone who knows aj and chad and was around for their relationship knows how much truth was in her; sweet f*** all, ask around at the cranka and you’ll find who the bad guy really is.
I haven’t been this thoroughly entertained by an Adelaide comedy performance in a long while. Definitely the best show I saw at this years fringe, and definitely a comedian worth seeing again. Hoping Aija Rae does another show soon!
Thanks Aija for a wonderful night out 🙂 and ignore the haters, you were terrific!
Aija Rae did what every good performer should – keep the audience entertained. Not only did she invite and encourage audience participation by giving away a unique memento to those brave enough to go on stage for a short q&a session, but she consistently remained dedicated and enthused throughout the show. Her energy and drive came from within, and one could see she that she was motivated by feelings inspired by powerful memories and experiences.