Packing 1,000+ people into Wellington’s St James theatre for a 60 minute solo show, albeit a one-night stand-up, is no mean feat. Yet here we are for Melanie Bracewell’s Forget Me Not, humming with anticipation. Her name is tastefully emblazoned across the cyclorama.

When – after the pre-recorded generic NZICF welcome and cautions that -one listens to, then the obligatory self-introduction that’s so hyper it’s unintelligible – Melanie strides on from stage left, the applause is huge and the connection immediate.

No danger, then, that we have forgotten her since she decamped to Australia with the boyfriend she keeps on reminding us about. I wonder if it was our beloved prime minister’s sudden resignation four months ago that prompted her departure, given the global attention her impressions of Jacinda Ardern – which she perfected during the first Lockdown – had received.

But a visit to her Facebook page reveals she’s been a hot ticket in Aus since 2021. Apart from her regular appearances on such shows as 7 Days and Have You Been Paying Attention? on both sides of the ditch, she is a co-host of The Cheap Seats on Australia’s Network 10.

Melanie also has an impressive track record as a writer – e.g. Wellington Paranormal (Best Writing Award, 2019) – and it shows in the way she has structured Forget Me Not, predicated not only on if she will be remembered but how she will be perceived in her own right, rather than as a Jacinda clone. And I have to say I keep getting flashes of Jacinda throughout this show. Plus there’s the issue of remembering people’s names … A beautifully crafted anecdote on that.

Asserting she has too much time on her hands leads to Melanie reading online product reviews by Woolworths (Aus) customers with even more time on their hands. Hilarious and astonishing. Her experiences with the much-vaunted weighted blanket links to further mention of her boyfriend of 2 years, Sean.

Tales about her family – she’s the youngest of 6 – range from a story she wrote at the age of 7, through a bizarre experience with a sister, to witnessing ‘Cauliflower Granddad’s eye test.

But it’s the tests Sean has to undergo to seek out the cause of his short term memory loss that inform the most substantive part of Melanie’s show: a prime example of a serious issue generating humour. And it’s the way she calls back elements of previous anecdotes that mark her skills as exceptional. Melanie Bracewell presents Forget Me Not with a delightful ease that belies the exquisite crafting of her thematically aligned comedic commentary. It’s only on once more in NZ – in Christchurch at the James Hay Theatre on Saturday 17 May, 8pm.

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