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Aurelia St Clair might be the comedic answer to every Person of Colour’s dreams. Her latest show, Woke 2.0, explores issues concerning gender, sexuality and race and audibly makes a mainly white audience uncomfortable. But when has the issue of race ever invited you over, pulled up a chair and offered you a cup of tea?
Despite being unapologetically funny, it’s clear that she’s weary of stepping on any (white) toes when she grants the crowd with permission to laugh at her jokes, even if they are mainly about race, and soon hushed snickers become belly laughs.
She opens up by referencing the four-word sentence every POC fears hearing – “Where are you from?” and immediately sets those with a lived experience with this question at ease, and her ironic, self-deprecating humour shines an important light on negative stereotypes cast on Black people.
Born in Germany, the half German, half Cameroonian comedian now calls North Melbourne home, and her show explores her assimilation, bisexuality, life with her Jehovah’s witness mother, and the dog adoption process, with racially-charged, tongue-in-cheek jokes that resonate more with the women and those of colour, rather than the white males in her audience.
The “c-word” is redefined, taboo surrounding female masturbation is questioned, and she does this all in a genuine manner that evokes a hilarious conversation shared between friends. Overall, listening to St Clair is an opportunity to get an education on race and sexuality complete with an hour’s worth of laughs in a way that doesn’t scream “woke”.