Geraldine Hickey: What a Surprise

Geraldine Hickey is a yarn spinner.  That’s not a put-down or a diminishing of what she does so well.  In her own way (more on that in a moment), she’s part of an Australian tradition.  You can see her propping up a pub bar (‘the pub’ gets frequent references in her show) and holding an audience spellbound.  Her tales of, well, nothing all that special or out of the ordinary are rendered absorbing by her comic timing, inclusive warmth and our immediate recognition of what she describes.  She also illustrates her experiences with occasional and hilarious bits of mime – or, in this show too, she treats us to some home movie video clips as well.  As she says, ‘It’s the little things in life that I enjoy’ – and it’s the little things that she brings to life.

Researchers have defined two broad categories of storytelling about one’s own experiences.  There’s the competitive, strict stick-to-the-plot mode – with punchline - in which the storyteller is the hero – and, usually, winner. 

And there’s the more leisurely, self-deprecating mode in which red herrings, footnotes and random thoughts are included, irony is emphasised, and there are frequent pauses for the storyteller to describe how they felt about these events.  Hickey is definitely in the latter mode. 

Her routines (if that’s the word) are long and detailed.  Someone once told her that a long story ‘breaks all the rules of stand-up’.  Hickey still doesn’t know what rules they were looking at.  She has the audience with her and laughing all the way though.  I certainly was laughing all the way through. 

Her stories aren’t ‘thrilling’, transgressive, shocking or aggressive, but they’re engaging and truthful.  The only ‘political’ references are, obliquely and in passing, to the trauma of the marriage equality campaign – and to a party where the guests were meant to come as A-grade predators.  So, among the sharks, crocs and lions, there was one couple who came as ‘old white men’.  

In an interview during the 2020 lockdown, Hickey admitted that she was actually relieved that the Melbourne International Comedy Festival was cancelled that year.  Stand-up takes a lot of effort and stamina and it makes her anxious.  There is no sign whatever of effort or anxiety while she’s on stage this time.

The show is called What a Surprise because it’s about surprises and, threaded through, romance.  It’s about surprise parties that run a bit longer than a surprise party is meant to run.  It’s about a surprise when something you expect doesn’t  happen – especially at a place where that something should happen - and a surprise when something you don’t expect does.  It’s about not being surprised when you get exactly what you expect.  Well, what a surprise.

The romance comes from Hickey and her partner Cath’s decision to get engaged – which means proposals and rings and planning.  That’s a tough call for Hickey because, really, she prefers not to plan, to organise or to be organised because that makes her anxious too – and then life just wouldn’t be surprising.  Still, all the parties and trips and happiness and disappointments and mishaps gave her the material to organise into this show.  So there.  What a surprise.

Michael Brindley