The only let down from Erin Hutchinson’s comedy festival show Please Come Closer (Don’t Touch Me) was that it was so brief. Well, 50 minutes is standard for a performance, so let me rephrase: I could listen to Erin tell, sing, and act stories of her coming-of-age experiences for hours and hours.
It might have been the first time that I wished I’d been born in the nineties and had gone to a Melbourne all-girls private schools so we could have been best friends. Given that I am considerably older, brought up in another continent, and male, it is a small comfort that I had the delight to share an hour of her company on stage.
Describing Erin as a ‘comedian’ is to sell her short. This 27-year-old is a performing polymath. She wrote a twenty-one chapter romance novel in her teens, composed a number of catchy pop songs while still in school, put on an incredible performance at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival. God knows what other talents she might have.
The woman can do everything, it seems. Which would make it seem hard to reconcile it with her hilarious accounts of her frustrations and mishaps, growing up daydreaming about boys and romantic love. Almost unsurmountable challenges for someone socially awkward and geeky, in her recounting. Add in crippling self-doubt about her sexuality that was bubbling away unconsciously, years before it dawned on her that she was really into girls all along.
Erin has an infectiously cheerful personality and positive energy, and from the reactions of the audience, I’d say it would be impossible to not be swept away by her talent and charm.
A standout feel-good comedy show that I would urge everyone to see.
– Christian
Christian G. is an international man of mystery; lover of books, cats and the performing arts; moonlighting as a finance professional by day.
Please Come Closer (Don’t Touch Me) runs Mondays only, 3–17 April at The Melbourne Town Hall. Buy tickets now.
The venue is accessible.
Read The Plus Ones’ guide to MICF 2017, and visit often to see all our reviews.
