Claire Hooper - Oh - Trades Hall, Melbourne - 04/05/06 - by epod

About a year ago, I saw Claire do a stand-up set in Perth, WA, and I was very impressed. This year, when I viewed the promotional posters for her Melbourne Comedy Festival show, I was particularly amused by the quote on them from fellow comedian, Tim Minchin which stated: 'I'd happily spend an hour watching her read a washing machine installation guide'. That has to be one of the best bits of advertorial material that I have ever read!

Firstly, if you have never heard of Claire, check out her CV on her website, which outlines her amazing achievements so far in tv, comedy, and theatre - again, very impressive!

"Oh", was very risky and daring, even more so considering it was her first Melbourne Comedy Festival solo show - and because Claire did the entire one hour show with no live voice! This show was described as "The ways we talk without talking". All her communication to the audience was through music, a tape recorder, mime, video presentations, and...t-shirts. There were also groovy UNO looking cards scattered across the audience seats which had various sayings on them, which were used in video footage later in the show as a means to communicate.

Claire showed videos of her visits to the doctor where she was told that she had a a goitre in her throat, and that she may need to have surgery. This may cause her to lose her voice, which wasn't helpful considering the line of work she is in, hence the idea for the show where she performs without a live voice. An over-reaction perhaps, but a great, original idea for a show.

Audio of Claire's stand-up was played throughout the show, including a particularly tragic video of Claire getting heckled mercilessly on stage in the UK. At one point in the show, she even asked (well, mimed) to the audience whether anyone had any questions. When she recieved questions, she fumbled through multiple cassette tapes, and pressed play on a tape recorder, giving each person an answer to their questions. Cool as.

Claire had a large collection of shirts hanging on the back wall, all with different words on them. As well as the shirts making a great backdrop, she also used these to communicate effectively during the show. She also did some dancing to MC Hammer's, "U Can't touch this, and Deeelite's "Groove is in the Heart". Unreal. Anyone game enough to dance to MC Hammer in public has my vote.

Although this show was not laugh a minute funny, I found this to be a very captivating, confident, entertaining and sweet show from a very promising performer. I also now understand why Tim Minchin would be happy to have Claire read a washing machine installation guide!