Showing posts with label wealth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wealth. Show all posts

Monday, 7 October 2024

Gina Rhinestone: Pig Iron Queen of Asstraya review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

Tina Arena’s "Chains" and Merril Bainbridge’s "Mouth", iconic Australia pop songs, greet us as we take our seats for Kimberley Twiner’s Gina Rhinestone: Pig Iron Queen of Asstraya. The political satire on Australia’s richest woman digs into the life of Gina Rinehart while raising questions about how much wealth and power one person should possess.

Twiner makes a monster of an entrance as she rides atop a bedazzled child’s toy excavator. She performs a number of sketches from “Gina Rhinestone’s” life, including baby Gina’s first words to the valuable “daddy thoughts” she has been raised on, with some incredibly racist comments about Indigenous people made by her father, comments that Rinehart has never publicly condemned.

We are also treated to the more adult events in her life, such as being named Telstra’s Businesswoman of the Year, where she shares her own “me too” ordeal, and the debacle over her demands that a portrait of her hung at the National Gallery of Australia be taken down. Twiner finds marvellous humour in these sketches, sometimes exaggerated and sometimes subtle, but mostly cleverly highlighting the power and influence that Rhinestone’s wealth has afforded her. Some toilet and bodily function gags undermine the thoughtfulness and consideration that Twiner has put into the show and perhaps there's a need to reconsider those moments.

Friday, 5 April 2019

The Pyramid - Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Steph Tisdell wants to be the best at what she does. She wants to sit at the top of the pyramid. With so many pyramids to choose from though, the choice is not that simple and in her new stand-up show, The Pyramid, she looks at ideas behind power, leadership and how to determine where she sits on the pyramid, and which one.

What is extremely endearing about Tisdell is how open and natural she is with her audience when on stage. She is not performing, she is not putting on a persona or pretending she is anyone but herself. This is made crystal clear when on the night attended, she pauses in the middle of a sentence and exclaims “Oh my god, is that Miranda Tapsell??!” and then proceeds to lose her shit over the fact that Tapsell has come to see her show - and we love it. Similarly, her interactions with two audience members who may or may not be related to her go on for a bit longer than they should, but we still enjoy seeing her eyes light up as they discuss people they might know.