Urzila Carlson: Unacceptable (MICF)

There's something just a tiny bit terrifying about Urzila Carlson. If you're dumb enough to heckle her, she will "fuck you up", she warns her audience at the beginning of this latest show, Unacceptable. It's a threat the whole crowd knows instinctive to heed, but Carlson is no tyrant. She next reassures her punters, in soothing tones, that she won't be using the time honoured stand-up trick of picking on hapless audience members, "so you can unclench your anuses now." Cheers Urlz!

In fact, there are many similar dualities in the Saffa-Kiwi comedian's stand-up. Her shtick has many of the hallmarks of a quintessential rage comic, but it's tempered with a controlled, steely, not easily ruffled patter. Her jokes are by turns wincingly filthy then accessibly domestic and borderline family friendly. On one level, her humour's tone is laddish and brash, and yet her subversive defiance of gender norms is undeniably feminist. She is a mainstay of the mainstream, appearing on prime-time TV hits like Have You Been Paying Attention?, and yet she is also a proud champion of queer stories.

With such an ambidextrous identity, it's little wonder Carlson appeals to such a diverse following, but what's truly impressive is how unanimously her jokes hit their mark. From millennials to baby boomers, men and women both straight and gay, diehard fans and first-timers alike, all laugh heartily at jokes that tickle either because of their uncanny resonance or as a guilty pleasure. There's no trickery to this broad-spectrum success. Carlson's comedy deals in that most universal of subjects: the human condition. Regardless of colour or creed, class or gender, her jokes are powered by the everyday, drawing an audience in with relatable familiarities, even if these are often outrageously framed.  

Unacceptable has belly laughs and guffaws aplenty, but there's nothing particularly innovative about Carlson's latest show. Much of it explores well-trodden territory, in both its subject matter and tone, taking aim at various social quibbles that Carlson (and most of us) deem unacceptable. But there is a moment that takes her performance in a startling and previously uncharted direction.

Carlson arrests the comedic momentum of the show to share a deeply personal and painful story about her partner's miscarriage of the couple's second child. Some may find her decision to include this in a relatively conventional stand-up performance a difficult one to grasp, but arguably, omitting it would be an even greater oddity. Carlson, like many comedians, draws deeply on herself for comic inspiration, and she also has an unusually close relationship to her fans. In revealing something so profound and private, Carlson makes an intimate connection with her audience in a way rarely achieved in comedy. It may not be funny, but it is astonishingly brave, revealing an incredible story of resilience that ultimately leaves us feeling inspired as well as amused. 

Urzila Carlson presents Unacceptable til 23 Apr at Melbourne Town Hall, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.