Childhood in Brisvegas sounds like it was an absolute hoot for the now Sydney-based comedian and writer Lizzy Hoo. Bringing some of the driest delivery you’ll see this Comedy Fest, she works the crowd into a glow up and knows exactly how to mine the culture mash of her Irish Catholic mum and Malaysian Buddhist dad. Noting during her Easter Friday appearance that he only ever went mass on this weekend because he “loved the theatre” of the stations of the cross, that crucifixion nugget sets the tone.
Hoo was a canny kid, wiggling her teeth out for gold coins then setting up a lending racket with exorbitant interest schemes. Her brother’s poor life choices were the perfect match when he’d need to borrow bus money to get to his work gig. On the face of it, her show Hoo Dis is old-school stand-up, mining personal asides and family history, but not every show needs to be high concept. Not when you’re as good at the gig as Hoo is. From dropping cracking one liners like, “it’s my way or the Huawei,” to broaching her and her dad’s improvised sick burns if they were to encounter anti-Asian sentiment during lockdown (thankfully they didn't), she folds in the current heightened climate in a deceptively breezy style.
She also navigates the ticking fertility clock pressures faced by a successful young woman juggling multiple jobs, and rebounds magnificently from a derisive laugh at the mention of scheduling a couple’s calendar. The Melbourne crowd gets a real kick from the peculiarities of Sydney life too, from the sport and fitness-obsessed proliferation of exercise classes in endlessly new and unusual forms, to her abject hatred of paddle boarding. Holding the petite Town Hall cloak room in the palm of her hands, Hoo exudes the kind of rambunctious confidence that’s sure to have her scaling the venue’s bigger spots in no time. An aside of darker family history, through her grandfather’s experience of WWII, hints at a future show that could step beyond the stand-up template and into something even more wow. But for now, what we get is top notch in every which way. You won't be asking 'who dis?' for much longer.
