[2013104] My Piano and Me
Sarah Gaul @ Gluttony – The Pig Pen
5:45pm, Thu 7 Mar 2013
I have to be honest: for the first third of this performance, I was smiling through gritted teeth. I like to give performers something to work with… I like them to think that, no matter how badly they’re doing, they’ve got a friend in the audience in me.
But I was really struggling to maintain that positivity. I’d come to this show on a whim, with no real expectations (except, perhaps, that a piano may be involved), and Sarah Gaul’s opening salvo of jokes left a lot to be desired. Tired themes, stretching for punchlines that weren’t really there… even her piano playing felt simplistic and a little clunky.
But then something changed. Some snark entered her stories; her jokes became tainted with an aggressively nasty streak. Vegan zealots were the first victims of this successful foray; then came stick-figure-car-families.
And, as her material became ever darker, as her ire increased… so did the laughs.
Now, don’t get me wrong – the slow start was almost unforgivable, and some of the musical pieces that underpin her comical songs are (charitably) crude. But when Gaul launches into a piece that starts with the ickiness of being pursued by a stalker, then turns it around by brutally murdering him… well, let’s just say that I’m very interested to see how she develops her act in the future.
(104) My Piano and Me: when the tension in the songs increases, so does the laughs-per-second. #ff2013 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) March 7, 2013