The new show from prominent comedian Claire Hooper is a pleasant enough mix of humour and pathos, but doesn’t quite soar to the heights this intriguing performer has previously conquered.
Plums is a good word and a great title (especially if you’re the audience member who didn’t get the double entendre for the first 15 minutes of the show, and then couldn’t get past it for the remainder). Hooper’s choice of title is reflective of what she sees as her own lack of bravery, as well as her obsession with the beloved plum trees in her backyard, and effectively takes the audience through the last couple of years of her life and what they have meant to her.
Hooper is back in Melbourne after a stint in New South Wales, where she joined the seemingly endless ranks of comedians shoehorned into breakfast radio jobs (in her case, co-hosting Claire and Rosso for Sydney’s Mix 106.5). It’s clear that the lengthy stretch spent pretending to care about the Kardashians has taken its toll on Hooper, who comes across onstage as relieved to be done with the job, but more than a little shellshocked by the time wasted on something she didn’t enjoy.
Plums serves as Hooper’s chance to vent, which is fair enough (she’s hardly the first comedian to exorcise a painful experience behind the microphone through stand-up) but the result is not particularly funny. Hooper seems to be trying to say something about how her breakfast radio stint has changed her perspective of herself, but maybe she hasn’t had the time to process it yet – she simply seems raw, and a little unhappy. The charming, awkward combination of introspection and self-deprecation doesn’t quite land here – the finesse Hooper has shown in prior shows is a little lacking.
Hooper’s Plums are good, but not great. That would ordinarily be fine, except that we all know this woman is capable of greatness on occasion. It’s still a fine show, but one can’t help but hope that Hooper comes back in a blaze of glory once she’s properly shed her recent professional millstones.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Claire Hooper – Plums
Melbourne Town Hall
28 March – 21 April
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
www.comedyfestival.com.au
27 March – 21 April
