If you haven’t yet seen Hannah Camillieri’s brand of live wire improv character acting and physical comedy, it’s time to get on board. The show debuted at Adelaide Fringe last year and she was nominated for Most Outstanding Show at the 2023 MICF, where she also won the Pinder Prize, leading to a season at Edinburgh Fringe and a run in London.
I first saw her opening skit, where she plays a deadpan, dry-as-dust, mustachioed mechanic engaging with an audience member about fixing their invisible car in Edinburgh last year as part of Best of the Fest: The New Class to a giant room full of drunk tourists, and I thought to myself then: “This is something else.”
Although I missed seeing Lolly Bag at that time, I can say firmly I’m on the Camillieri bandwagon after seeing this tasty selection of her impressive skills wrapped up in a thoroughly hilarious and entertaining hour of character work and audience participation (be warned, front row).
Read: Comedy Festival, Shitfaced Shakespeare, Athenaeum Theatre, MICF
On night one, the audience was already in the palm of her hand – from her depiction of a shrill year 8 teacher managing a class of students in an exam, to her cowboy improvising to audience-provided sound effects (how she gets this off the ground is a masterclass in audience handling). A true, rare talent and genuinely belly-achingly funny – someone needs to give this woman a TV show.
Tickets: $25-$32
Hannah Camillieri: Lolly Bag will be performing at the Malthouse Theatre until 7 April 2024 as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF 2024).
