Gillian Cosgriff - Fresh New Worries

Fresh New Worries shines light on the pressures of everyday living in our modern tech world when everything is a Google search away from just another anxiety. Gillian Cosgriff has a ripper of a show running at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and has everybody gasping for more as she juggles her talents around a white  box of  worries plonked  on a Grecian plinth to  the side and her  baby grand piano on the other.

Prepped before we enter the show room, we are egged on by a white box of worries - to write our anonymous concerns down on  provided pieces of paper – in turn  that  they might  be read out loud during the performance.

Cosgriff leaps out on to the stage - she wants to bond with her audience and feel their vibe; she is the crowd warmer , she tells us “We need some common ground”. Once she has found her place with us, we become putty in her hand, and everyone loves her genuine girl next door style.

She loves laughing at her own life; like when she lost her first job: her thwarted aspirations for her nephew, who joined the army, as her  singing protégé  and sings along to  Big Mouth Billy Bass (mounted singing fish). She looks for the meditation white light to slow her down, but she just Googles it. 

Cosgriff sets up many anecdotal and personal stories and    takes a light-hearted approach to  mundane domestics - she then  harmonises them  into sweet melodies that are genuine and  funny - similar in vein to Tim Minchin.

Ever wondered about the myth of Pandora’s Box? Cosgriff will take you on a journey around the ancients and back home again and if hope is all that remains after all the evils have been exorcised and the goodness has been juiced, then it has been a hilarious ‘worrisome-free’  hour of laughs.

Flora Georgiou

Photo credit: Nicole Reed