comedy review: that sexy show

 

Just as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival departs, the cool change has come over and suddenly everything is looking a little greyer and a whole lot less funny.  Luckily for me, I was able to assuage the post-MICF blues and catch  the last performance of the MICF incarnation of That Sexy Show. Taking on the game show format the show pits team of sharp minded sexperts against each other to unravel everything you ever wanted to know (and some things you didn’t need to know) about getting down and dirty.

TSS is headed by the sparkling Sarah Jane Haywood, flanked by her two team captains, Geraldine Hickey and Adam Knox. Inviting a changing cast of guests into their ménage-à-trois, the show rollicks along through a few rounds of uproarious games.

My late night adventure saw The Australian Sex Party’s Fiona Patten, Poison Apple Production’s Anna Brownfield and comedians Bart Freebairn and Rose Callaghan take the stage.

They take aim at crap sex advice and embrace sex positivity. One round asked the teams to divine real from fake Maxim sex advice: one of the signs of ovulation is a sudden interest in vacuum cleaning vs the benefits of drum and bass music while being a cunning linguist. Another asks them to use their best craft skills to turn very NSFW porn into something you could proudly hang in the boardroom, somehow spawning the catchphrase ‘all aboard the Fucktrain’.

The show is explicit and may not be for everyone, but I had a great time. It doesn’t hold back and more importantly doesn’t exclude anyone, yeah there’s a straight white guy up there but he’s happily among a group of people scattered along sexuality spectrums. The team do a great job of making the guests comfortable, which pays off. Everyone opens up with their own super embarrassing, riotous and hilarious sexual misadventures, leaving the audience to ponder just how bad it would be to mix up Srichacha Sauce and lube. How, even?

Although That Sexy show is done with MICF it pops up around town now and then to bring sexy back to the good burghers of Melbourne. Check out their Facebook page to keep abreast of their whereabouts.

If there’s one thing the show left me with it was the knowledge that you haven’t seen porn until you’ve seen a housewife on her knees in front of a man dressed as a box of Cream of Wheat, while a guy dressed as giant toast serenades them with a saxophone. Makes sense? No? You’ll just have to Google that one for yourself.

Want more? Check out Lip’s Q&A with Sarah Jane here.