First to the question on everyone's minds: What is with the snail on the poster? Is this show conceived for malacologists (snail scientists)? Is it "a cultural thing", as Rajan suggests, putting herself in the place of a white audience member booking the show? Is it just silliness?
Rajan uses the premise of a video game to drop into multiple guises: a worm, a mouse at a wedding, a crypto bro at a party, a pyromaniac whale. These are absurd and surprisingly delightful, linking physical comedy with completely ridiculous premises. But she spends most of the show in the persona of a stand-up comedian, a framing device that lets her intersperse wacky animal impressions into a more traditional stand-up set.
In this post-Nannette world, Rajan says, comedy is therapy and therapy is comedy and everyone is on a journey together. She especially needs that kind of mental healthcare because she spent the entirety of Melbourne's lockdowns stuck in her parents' house in Perth, writing jokes in her childhood bedroom while Mark McGowan refused to open the borders to the eastern states. The therapeutic (or at least comedic) result of that experience is the conclusion of her show, an audience participation bit that is absolute gold and neatly ties up the previous hour with a perfect bow. And yes, you will learn what the heck that snail is all about.
