Review: ★★★ Alice Fraser: Ethos (MICF)

Alice Fraser is a plate spinner; throwing stand-up, education, song and storytelling into an unconventional hour or comedy. But while she's brilliantly capable at all of this, together it's too much to make her newest offering work smoothly.

Ethos has some moments of true comic brilliance and an incredibly interesting and thought-provoking idea at its core. But the problem that shadows Fraser throughout, unfortunately, is the delivery. What starts off as a solid plot point quickly falls into gimmick territory, as the "computer" sidekick turns into a ventriloquist dummy without the skill.

Structurally, Fraser is a powerhouse of meta and call-back, saving gems of story in her back pocket and throwing them to the crowd when they least expect it. There are ideas and revelations in her show that are pure genius, but sadly they're underdeveloped and copious. Ethos has one too many points of satisfactory conclusion, forcing Fraser to find an end to the show that just doesn't feel right.

Fraser is a world-class entertainer and few can truly keep up with the kind of cerebral performance for which she has become known. Whether or not Ethos can really be classified as a comedy is still up in the air, but what's certain is the hold of intrigue that Fraser can elicit from her audience. It's not laugh-out-loud comedy by any means, but it is an incredibly fascinating and enjoyably weird piece of theatre.

Alice Fraser presents Ethos until 22 Apr at the Chinese Museum, part of the 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.