comedy review: kirsty mac’s feminazi
Photo: Kirsty Mac
“We’re all a bit confused about stuff right now. Like who pays for dinner on the first date? Do I walk first through doors so you can check out my arse? Does the treatment of our first female PM indicate a chunk of people in Australia are actually mental? More importantly, does a short haircut matched with unbelievably great arm definition make me a lesbian?” (Kirsty Mac)
Armed with a guitar and a microphone, Kirsty Mac appeared on stage confident and comfortable performing her stand-up comedy show “Feminazi.” Her hair slicked back in a power quiff, Mac offered some very funny insights into the challenges of being a single woman in her mid-thirties who (gasp!) is also a self-proclaimed feminist.
It was really refreshing to hear a thick Australian-occa accent wrap around her vowels as she spoke, telling jokes and stories that weren’t the stereotypical “period” jokes that so many female comedians seem to get categorised by. Australian Politics, Germaine Greer (and her two step forwards one step back approach to feminism) and even the ridiculousness that is Rush Limbaugh were just some topics that came up.
Performed in her home town of Geelong as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the venue was small and intimate. Upon entry the audience was asked to write some questions for Mac who would answer them at the end of the show. This part was playful but I thought short lived. I did enjoy her response to one question of “what is the most important ingredient in garlic bread?” To which she responded with a smile “Love. Oh and uh, garlic?”
While there seemed to be a period of odd tension in the room, Mac managed to break it by bringing the broader issues of feminism to a local level. Drawing on her rookie mistake of holding a show in Geelong when the Geelong Cats had a home game and shouting hi to her Mum and brother several times reminded the audience that while she was well travelled and offering commentary on roader social issues, this was after all a comedy show. One particularly funny story was when Mac was approached by a homeless man; he asked her for $2 and her response was “I’ll give you $1.67 because that’s what a woman would get paid for doing the same job.”
Finishing up with a song, Mac aggressively strummed her guitar and sung “I don’t want your babies just buy me a drink!”
The Feminazi is not a woman we should fear and Mac’s show reminds us that it’s ok to laugh AND be a woman AND have an opinion on the world and how it operates.
Ha ha ha. Brilliant. Never mind the “Who pays for dinner on the first date?” & “Who walks through the door first?” questions–what about “Who initiates the handshake first?”. Regardless of whether it’s female-male or female-female handshake. To apply for a job, I recently met with a recruitment agency director–& was chagrined to realize later that I’d waited for her to stick her hand out first, presumably because I’d presumed her to be the “top dog” in the transaction. And that I’d have done that with a male too–because leaving the handshake initiative to the other person is what I always do! Time to take control of that power encounter & subtly gain the upper hand.