High Pony
High Pony has nothing to do with brumbies in the Alps. It’s a ponytail, worn high, the preferred hairstyle of your under-25s netball player. Thus Mel and Sam’s opening number in their show this year is, ‘Net-f*cking-ball’ – aggressive, defiant, in your face – and a sharply observed nasty, witty take on the immensely popular game and its sometimes strangely motivated players. A contemporary phenomenon no less and therefore ripe for Mel and Sam to take the piss.
This is ‘queer comedy duo’ Mel and Sam’s third show. The first, No Hat, No Play, was set in a primary school. The second, SHIT-WRECKED, on the glamorous Spirit of Tasmania. High Pony, as Sam tells us, catching her breath after the opening number, takes place in Sam and Mel’s heads.
So, it’s a cabaret show all about the world now and whatever has caught Mel and Sam’s snarky, cynical, insightful, obsessive, malicious, filthy interest. So we get songs about netball, lesbian relationships, babies, upmarket shopping and shoppers, Where’s Wally, MAGA and Rich and Poor. All good, but when Sam appears as Little Orphan Annie and Mel as Daddy Warbucks, the audience goes nuts.
The show is 98% songs in varied musical styles – from rap to a sort of Andrews Sisters vibe to big belter musicals. Each number has its own choreography – and executed with precision as well as humour. Mel and Sam wear much the same outfits but they’re not a matched pair and that feeds the fun. Both have extremely expressive faces too – faces that say as much as their song lyrics.
The big room at the Toff in Town was packed on our night (okay, it was Tuesday) and judging by audience response, Mel and Sam have accumulated a big, loyal, appreciative and attuned fan base. Continuous laughter was knowing and maybe in-jokey from the fans, but just as much fun for walk-ins out for a good time. I suspect there was some amazement from those new to Mel and Sam at just how good they are.
I don’t know anything more about Mel and Sam. I don’t know where they come from or where and how they learned to write these pointed, funny songs and add silly but perfect choreography to them. I don’t know what else they do when they’re not cooking up their shows (apart from appearing at other festivals to great acclaim). I don’t know whether they’re ‘professional’ or if they just do this for fun. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that, yet again, Mel and Sam have collaborated and come up with an amazing, energetic, polished, totally confident show that has more insight and ideas in its sixty minutes than most comedy/cabaret shows around.
Michael Brindley
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