By Jennifer Beasley.
Alice Tovey shares heartbreaking vulnerabilities intertwined with comedy to shatter the glass walls of our emotional prisons.
That by-line sounds heavy, right? However, it takes an extraordinary courage to blaze onto a stage in an emerald velvet tracksuit and pink sparkly crocs and tell the audience that your dad went to prison.
Not for murder or anything so extreme (I’ve yet to hear of any children of serial killers doing stand-up, but there’s always a first time if Netflix is involved!) but as Tovey states a ‘white collar crime by a blue-collar man’.
It makes, at times, for uncomfortable listening. But this is life, right? Why else do we go to see performers? And the best comedy, the ones that lead to the deepest belly laughs, usually originate from a place of pain.
In the accomplished hands of Tovey, comic writer for Gruen and The Weekly, they turn a frown upside down. Excellent writing ensures this act integrates puns and highlights, and lowlights, of their life as they grapple with prison visits, their ADHD mother, siblings, lemon trees and wedding mishaps, all the while pulling it together as a general discourse on the prison complex and the absurdity of the system.
It’s obvious that Tovey has a great love for her parents, which I found refreshing in an age where everyone seems to blame their own kin for so much weighted chip on narrow-minded shoulders. Her warm ‘love-letter’ sung to their dad, the final soprano note hanging precariously upon the still air, blown away as the audience exhaled as one, their energy silent in the emotional power of the song. Up until that time I was somewhat underwhelmed, but reviewed my thoughts of the show, as Tovey then continued to elevate her performance to exalted standards.
The puns and jokes then came thick and fast, ending with another song dedicated to their mother, a glorious absolution and mature forgiveness that we are all human, and love can right all wrongs.
Fabulous Tovey hits all the right notes, warm-hearted, big-hearted and an explosive talent.
A definite one to put on your fixtures for MICF and another proud Melbournian so support your own. Oh, and I need a pair of those pink sparkly crocs- I think you’re started a trend Tovey!
Alice Tovey – Glass Houses plays at Storyville at 8:00 PM until 6th April 2025.
