In the bowels of the Bull & Bear Tavern lay a stage and a comedy audience ready to laugh, as well as a kitchen staff that got to chortle along to every joke too.
I love mistranslation stories. Love them. So when CJ Delling, a German native, started pointing out the hilarious literal translations of so many of our phrases that I had never even thought of before, I was giggling my head off.
CJ is also one of the great thinkers of our time – I propose we take her concept of fixing the gender wage gap to Parliament and get it put through ASAP. Our $10 note, with Banjo on one side and Dame Mary Gilmore on the other, can easily be slightly altered into a $12 value on Gilmore’s side. Bam. One note, two values, 20%. Even if it’s only good for those in the gender binary.
There were a few awkward gym-sex jokes, some very well timed coincidental ringing of phones right on a phone themed punchline, and I have never seen a German person do such a great fake German accent before.
CJ Delling light heartedly talked about consent with the great Tea Metaphor, and managed to add in some new content that made it hilarious – major respect to her for taking no punch-down jokes, just some beautiful discussion about the use of the word ‘slaying’ when talking about sex, and some cheese jokes that were very gouda.
Okay, I’m not the comedian. I’ll stop now.
-Jasmin Ashton
Jasmin Ashton is a PR whiz and freelance writer/designer from Melbourne who has a lot of feelings about pretty much everything. Find her at @Jasmanna.
‘Funny Bits‘ runs from 23 March to 3 April. Venue is wheelchair accessible.
Check out our guide to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for more great shows.
