COMEDY REVIEW: Ruby Esther Comedy Festher
12.05.2023 at Basement Theatre
This review is part of the 2023 Comedy Festival Lineup!
It’s a running joke among stand-up comedians that we’re literally all mentally unwell, and if you get to know us, you realise it’s not really a joke so much as a factual statement. As a comedian, among other things, I’m so used to people having issues I’m practically desensitised to it! Even so, Ruby Esther, (who, for the record, I don’t know personally,) has a quite severe anxiety disorder.
It’s nice to see someone with anxiety get on stage and actually share how it effects their life. A lot of comedians with anxiety make jokes about it, but Ruby is less focused on making a punchline out of a coping mechanism. She knows there’s an inherent humour in both the irrational and the rationalised sides of an anxiety disorder.
And it is disordered. That’s the difference. A lot of comedians make jokes about how poorly they cope with anxiety and their bizzare ways of dealing with it, but ultimately the experience of disordered anxiety is something else. Disordered anxiety is when it doesn’t make sense as a reaction, or when it’s far out of proportion to the thing causing it. I’ve experienced this too. It is funny, but not always the kind of funny that gets people giggling. I’ve seen many a comedian tell an anecdote on stage that usually earns solid laugh but on the odd night an audience of concerned adults instead shift uncomfortably in their seats. I’m told I saw the show on the only night where the audience wasn’t consistently laughing out loud, and yet Esther still maintained such a good-natured standup atmosphere I could tell everyone was enjoying the show. Esther is able to perform material that so directly describes the things that she’s thought, felt and done because of her anxiety without losing the audience - it’s proof of her skill as a performer.
The show isn’t just about anxiety either. Esther plays with tension and humour across several threads - Relationships, gender, work, epilepsy, family - all get used for effective comedy, playing with the audience. You can tell Esther is having fun on stage.
One of the funnier, more consistent threads in her show is (knowingly) dubious feminism. Her jokes playing with this aren’t meant to be taken too seriously. Esther makes it clear that she is a feminist, referencing feminist beliefs that she holds, but then she makes jokes that run obviously counter to feminist ideas in a way only a sincere feminist would ever be able to do successfully.
It would be remiss not to mention that Esther does musical comedy, but I don’t want to say that the show is a musical comedy show. Standup carries the hour. She does comedy songs that provide a satisfying change of pace and sometimes a bit of a dramatic crescendo, and unlike most musical comedy, I think the gags would entirely hold up outside of the structure of a song. The comedic bits ‘have legs’ - they stand on their own. Esther has success with other ways of presenting as well, making use of the props on display.
Ruby Esther has developed her craft for years, and is great at holding a room. Her comedy is very well thought out and performed with flair. Definitely make her a part of your comedy-festival itinerary, especially if her subject matter speaks to you. I’ll be looking forward to her next solo show as well.
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