By Jennifer Beasley.
An exceptional talent and budding comedic superstar. Robyn Reynolds has arrived.
Drum roll, please.
Da, da, daaa!
Introducing the amazing, talented, gifted comic, Robyn Reynolds!
You think this is hyperbole?
I reviewed Reynolds in early February when she was a supporting act for Sammy J. Even then, I thought she outshone everyone. But I didn’t expect THIS!
Girl, did you just grow into your talent. It’s like the Amazon Forest sprouted where there was only an oasis.
Everyone at Paul’s Place, packed in so tight the sardines had to leave, were blown away by this performance.
Flamed-haired, Reynolds burst onto stage. Breathless from rushing from another gig, her impromptu comedy before her actual act was fall-on-the-floor hilarious. A giver of too much information mixed with her recovering people pleaser nature; Reynolds shared that she was bra-less. As one the audience zeroed in on a certain part of Reynold’s anatomy, while us girls admired her cute top and skirt combo. A clever move clearly designed to hook us all, the men especially, as Reynolds excitedly announces that this is her MICF debut.
Winner of the Comedy New Work Award at Melbourne Fringe last year, Reynold’s show is a determined effort to make us all enter a zone way above any other show I’ve reviewed. Ever. This is a brilliant performance.
Encompassing mummy and daddy issues, mixed up with self-deprecating humour and a medical diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, good natured British ex-patriot Reynolds expands her repertoire with her ‘Mummy Issues, ’Girls don’t poop’, and ‘My dad said he doesn’t need therapy’ tunes.
With nuggets like ‘Frothing at the gash’, ‘don’t pull back, lean in’ and that she feels like ‘a jellyfish trying to be a girl’ there is nary a dull patch during this hour-long performance (it went over by ten minutes because the audience didn’t want her to stop!)
Great interaction with the audience too. Her breezy style makes Reynolds eminently relatable, and when she asked if I’d be her mummy I said yes! I don’t know what I’ve let myself in for but expect dinner at 6pm and I’ll heat the water bottle up for you as I rub your feet. (Clearly, I am a different sort of mother than her own is).
Reynold’s comic timing is spot on. Great physicality and facial movements upon that alabaster skin. She owns the stage and knows it.
She is a superstar in the making.
What? Again? Goodness you lot are impatient!
The show concluded with the entire audience giving a STANDING OVATION. At a comedy show. I have never, ever, seen that.
Except once.
When I was very young, I attended a show at Glasgow, Scotland (parents in tow but let’s leave my own mummy and daddy issues out of this). It was brilliant, magical, and like Reynolds, the audience erupted into thunderous applause. You see, you know when a comic genius is on stage. Robyn Reynolds, in my opinion, is in this category. As I have stated three times now. Superstar in the making.
Oh, and the comedian I saw, way back when?
Billy Connelly.
Robyn Reynolds: What Doesn’t Kill You now playing at Paul’s Place at The Melbourne Town Hall at 8:30 pm (7:30pm on a Sunday) until 20th of April.
