Comedy shows about ‘trigger warnings’* aren’t hard to come by these days.  They’re often made by unimaginative comics lashing out against some vague idea of “political correctness” without much nuance or even a basic understanding of the ideas they deal with.

Australian comedian Zoë Coombs Marr’s Trigger Warning is not one of these shows. Rather, it simply explores the comic situations that can come from the clashes between ‘offensive’ comedy and modern pop feminism. There is no polemic to speak of, although the show’s perspective is broadly feminist.

Marr performs in character as David, a male stand-up comedian whose sense of humour is apparently limited to unimaginatively misogynistic sex jokes. This show, the second Marr has done as David, finds him trying to grapple with feminism and the idea that his jokes might be offensive. This situation sends him plummeting headlong into existential crisis and metatheatrical madness. 

Marr inhabits her character with seemingly limitless energy from his first blustering entrance, managing a great larger-than-life-ness in both her physical and verbal manner. She seems to land pretty well every joke, getting uproarious laughter from the audience. Running gags are managed stunningly, woven inventively through the show.

She also manages parody remarkably well. When David goes into his old sexist jokes, there’s no sense (as there might be in something like South Park) that the laughter comes from agreement, that he’s ‘saying what we’re all thinking’ behind a veil of irony. At the same time, David is treated with empathy as he becomes increasingly distressed and vulnerable – this is no inhuman caricature. 

There are no reservations to mention. This is incredible stand-up comedy, the exact sort of thing that the NZ Festival exists to bring us. It is on for one more night, anyone who likes stand-up is advised to go. 
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*A warning before a piece of media alerting viewers to content that might trigger traumatic memories, a concept that has met with resistance from those opposed to ‘politically correct’ sensitivities.

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