Review: Busting Out! at Sky City Theatre

Emma Powell (L) and Bev Killick keep the laughs coming with a blend of earthy stand-up, bawdy sight gags and more. Photo / Supplied

I would have liked to say this is not my cup of tea but such a disclaimer probably sounds disingenuous - besides which a cup of tea suggests something far too genteel for a show that is more like a swig of home brewed fire-water.

The aroma of this no-holds-barred comedy may lack subtlety but the humour certainly packs a punch. In the tradition of Puppetry of the Penis, the show exemplifies a peculiarly Australian approach to comedy in which the driving impulse is an absolute refusal to let anything get in the way of a good laugh.

It is an attitude that tells us something about the differences between transtasman styles of comedy. While a Kiwi comedian might gently toy with the irony of a title like Topless Women Talk About Their Lives the Australian approach in Busting Out! places the topless women centre-stage, has them manipulate their breasts into mind-boggling shapes and projects every detail on to an enormous screen.

Strangely enough the show also manages to fly a feminist flag - opening to strains of Sisters Are Doing it for Themselves and closing with a graphically illustrated version of I Am Woman, the middle-aged performers pour scorn on the commercialised ideals of youthful beauty and flamboyantly celebrate a woman's right to feel comfortable about her natural body shape.

Some of the biggest laughs of the night came from a simple stand-up routine in which Bev Killick brilliantly describes the humiliation of attempting to force her post-pregnant body to conform to society's cruelly unrealistic expectations.

But most of the humour is of a more basic kind with endlessly inventive sight gags, Benny Hill-style double entendres along with some clever reworking of well known pop songs and film titles.

Both of the performers are talented and accomplished practitioners with Bev Killick displaying a down-to-earth no-nonsense style that instantly establishes a genuine rapport with the audience.

Emma Powell has a powerful singing voice and shows remarkable chutzpah in conceiving the show and nurturing it from a one-women comedy festival sketch through to a touring extravaganza that has played to over 200,000 Australians.