Elouise Eftos - Australia’s First Attractive Comedian

Move over male comedians, originally Perth-based, now Sydney-based, Elouise Eftos is in town! I saw her debut solo show last night at The Greek Centre as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and I was floored by her talent. I thought Josh Thomas made me laugh the hardest I had ever laughed when I saw him at The Arts Centre earlier this week, but apparently not. Apparently I can laugh much, much harder. 

Empowered, confident, sassy, smart, funny, relevant, sexy – Elouise Eftos has it all, and the crowd was just screaming with laughter. Can someone please give Elouise her own TV show too? At the end she even had a tear in her eye, so touched was she by the response. But here in Melbourne many of us have been waiting a long time to see Elouise! While the crowd wasn’t all Greek, at least half of it would have been, and perhaps that’s why the reaction was so strong. The largest population of Greeks in the diaspora is in Melbourne, and trust me, we are starving for feminist role models that tell it like it is. And boy did she tell it!   

Like many who were there last night, I stumbled across Elouise during COVID, which is when her career took off. She was making people laugh through one the hardest times in history. I had started up a small online festival to showcase artists in the southern-European diaspora, “No I’m not washing your dirty plate arts festival” and I came across her in my search. While she couldn’t partake in my festival, I started following her short videos. Delivering subtle yet punchy social commentary through the many comedic yet realistic characters she played, I knew instantly that she would make it big. It wasn’t long before Karl Stefanovic was interviewing her on the Today show and her videos were going viral. 

It was around this time that she dubbed herself ‘Australia’s First Attractive Comedian’ (as a joke, right? Or is it?). But what ensued was unexpected to Elouise, as I discovered last night. While she had tagged herself like this as a way to play men at their own game where they constantly objectify us, she had more established female comedians subtly tell her she was being ‘anti-feminist’ by calling herself that. What came as a shock to me was a tweet by Nia Vardalos, who wrote and acted in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, claiming that Elouise calling herself that was “taking us back to the dark ages”. This, coming from the creator of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a film that has done immense damage to Greek feminist rights in the diaspora, a film which had stereotyped Greek culture – I was infuriated. Although Nia eventually took her criticism back after Elouise politely explained her reasoning, that doesn’t matter to me. Look in the mirror please Nia before you speak! Sorry!

Through Elouise’s show – and I wouldn’t call this a straight comedy show, I would call it a hybrid show of theatre-comedy – Elouise did a great job of showing us in her uniquely subtle yet hilarious ways how women play on women out of fear and jealousy, but how men can get away with whatever they want, while women get picked at like a bird pecking on grains. It is these double standards that make the playing field not fair game at all. As a performer and writer myself, I could relate to the feeling of being torn down by women when you don’t act the way they think you should act. But also, outside of the arts, generally, as a Greek woman this is especially prevalent, how you must act a certain way or you are not being a proper woman. This constant control of women in both their personal and professional lives, through men and women, is what patriarchy is all about. I saw Elouise’s show as a protest of sorts, to people trying to control her. It was extremely liberating to watch. 

It was Elouise actually claiming her femininity and her space that made her so appealing – nobody could look away. She unapologetically did it too. And why shouldn’t women do that? Why can’t we wear a skimpy outfit and lingerie on stage? Men have been and are still objectifying us, and then when we turn around and use that to our advantage we are suddenly not being a feminist? Men still hold the power in the world, this is a fact. I think feminism is a private matter to each woman to be whatever feminist they want to be. Women policing – stop it! 

And don’t think for a minute that this show was just about skimpy outfits. This show was skilfully created, and it was clearly evident that so much work went into it. Elouise improvised with audience interaction, creating a very intimate yet comfortable space, she played different characters, she mixed in high production video with props and costume, appropriate lighting to create great effects, her singing, acting, dancing, movement skills are just impeccable. Six stars and a big f you to patriarchy for this show. A must see for feminists who don’t fit in the box, and a must see for everyone else too. This show has a wide audience and will appeal to many regardless of gender/ethnicity. 

Koraly Dimitriadis

Koraly Dimitriadis is a Cypriot-Australian poet, writer and performer and the author of Love and F—k Poems, Just Give Me The Pills and She’s Not Normal. Her theatre show I say the wrong things all the time premiered at La Mama.

Australia’s First Attractive Comedian runs 9^th – 21^st April at The Greek – Level 1, 168 Lonsdale St, Melbourne. Book tickets here.