Comedy review: Annie Boyle, Annie Are You Ok?
★★★½
Raw, deadpan, and disengaged – Annie is delivering not-so-conventional comedy and I’m here for it.
Source: Annie Boyle performed live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2024
At first, I wasn’t sure about Annie Are You Ok? It’s definitely not your conventional stand-up show with jokes fired every two minutes, nor does Annie Boyle exhibit the classic persona of a bright-eyed cheesy comedian waiting for the audience to throw back their heads in laughter. In fact, she’s the complete opposite.
But I don’t want to write about what this show isn’t. Because what it is, is a stunning, sarcastic, blazing performance about love and grief.
The second time I saw Annie Are You Ok? I gained a wider appreciation for its underlining story, a poignant and powerful ode to her late mother. Throughout the show, Annie reflects on losing her mum, and where else than at a gay nightclub in London awaiting Delta Goodrem to perform live. Yes, the premise is unusual, but if you have ever lost a loved one, you’d know how the thought of them can surface in some of life’s most unexpected moments.
Annie invokes storytelling with performance, moving across the stage (albeit rather slowly), while re-enacting her evening in Heaven Nightclub – cue tales of flirting with a girl, hooking up with said girl in a bathroom stall, dancing with her friend, reciting the animated film ‘Chicken Run’ (if you know you know) – but no matter what she does or who she speaks to, Annie can’t seem to shake the memory of her mother in this moment.
Annie’s elongated movements mimic her expressionless jokes, working to create a character that is numb and distant, stuck in a kind of grieving limbo. When it’s needed most, she offers up a joke, often when the audience are on the edge of their seats, anticipating what happens next in the club. Will she find the woman she was flirting with her earlier? Will she get her can of coke? Will she see her mother’s ghost? Will she witness Australia’s sweetheart Delta Goodrem perform live? I could almost hear the audience salivating for Annie to deliver a witty one-liner. But she doesn’t. Only when she’s ready does she lean in with a slight smirk and sarcastic quip, enough to hold the audience over. What power! To hold your audiences’ attention like that. It’s almost as though Annie isn’t striving to please us, but rather immerse us in her narrative, turning us into the disconnected crowd in the nightclub.
Props and audio-visual cues helped set the scene throughout the performance, with background music, strobe lighting, and a hilarious rolling credits sequence. Much needed elements for a one-woman show.
On occasion there were a few setups that didn’t quite pay off and fumbling over lines, however, with some fine-tuning Annie will have a stand-out show. Her comedy may not be to everyone’s taste – especially those that love convention (in other words, if you’re a Tommy Little fan, this isn’t the show for you). But if you’re open to smart, performative comedy that fuses raw emotions and deadpan then you are in for a win.
Keep your mind open, is all I say.
Annie Boyle, Annie Are You Okay performed live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2024.
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