Bleep Bloop – a pop comedy album

Photo by Emma Holland.

Lou Wall, in green, yellow-striped track suit, begins by explaining what ‘bleep bloop’ means.  They provide numerous examples.  What a ‘bleep bloop’ is, it’s true, a bit abstract, a bit multi-purpose, a bit judgemental, and a category rather than a thing, but basically it means something that fills an awkward gap... in things.  Having cleared that up – and it is now perfectly clear – Lou begins the show proper and explains that the concept for this show is an album of songs they have been urged to write, and promised to write, and so… here are a few of the songs.  For the album.

What Lou Wall achieves is to make that absolutely essential contact with the audience, so that we feel we’re in on the joke and on their side.  They do that with a sort of giggling, semi-apologetic, goofy persona that belies the wit, sarcasm, and sharp observation of the material.  Although depression and loneliness are mentioned, this is not the usual comedian self-deprecation schtick so decried by Hannah Gadsby (who is also mentioned).  Lou is happy – well, now.  Here, if they are a victim, they’re a victim of circumstance or nutjob humans, but not of any character flaw.  On the contrary.  The final song of the show exults in being a 6’5” lesbian and what it’s like – via very suggestive metaphors – to make love with same.  A woman stops Lou and her short partner in the street, and says, ‘You’re a big girl.  Imagine if you wore high heels.’  And Lou, with a wicked smile and a bit of a kick, replies, ‘Imagine!’  You’re in on the joke, but better if you see it for yourself.

One song, not exactly a song, requires a visual aid. On a screen, we get the text message exchanges when Lou tries to sell a bed frame on Facebook.  $50.  No takers.  Okay then, free.  Now there’s a buyer – but she wants a discount.  This fine example of miscommunication builds and builds to absurdity and a burglary.  Another set piece, which anyone who sees this show will remember and try to tell their pals, also builds, and builds.  This one is about when Lou sees a puppy trapped under a heavy drain grating – and rain is imminent.  Their efforts to save the puppy – enlisting the help of passers-by, their partner, a skateboarder, their boss, and the SES…  Well, let’s not spoil it.  But it’s not a happy ending.  

Why isn’t Lou Wall famous, a headliner, in the Gala, etc, etc.?  After all, they’ve won Best Cabaret Production 2020 Green Room Award, Outstanding Online Achievement in Cabaret 2020 Green Room Award, Best Writing Cabaret 2020 Green Room Award, Best Cabaret Melbourne Fringe 2020, Nominated Best Work in Festival Melbourne Fringe 2021.  A mystery.  Bleep Bloop might be a little simpler than previous shows, a little more straightforward – apart from that one ‘visual aid’, this show’s just Lou, a microphone, and some pre-recorded music – but it’s just as fast, as funny, and just as clever.  Lou is a knockout.

Michael Brindley

Perfomance images by Jack Dixon Gunn.