Comedy Festival 2018: Rose Matafeo’s bandwagon gaining speed in Hornbag ★★★★

ELECTRIFYING Kiwi millennial surprise packet Rose Matafeo will have you jumping out of your seat. Get on board.

THE Rose Matafeo bandwagon is about to leave: I recommend you take a seat.

See this winning 26-year-old this year — in a compact room in the Melbourne Town Hall — and you’ll have bragging rights to hold over your friends in a few years time when she’s jumped to bigger venues.

Rose Matafeo in Horndog.

With the charm of Lehmo and the warmth of Celia Pacquola this show is a hoot. Stand-up, sketches and a surprising amount of karaoke (don’t worry, no audience participation) pay off in a physically intense hour of roaring laughs.

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Part of the show is a rocket ride back to her childhood, the dial-up era of 2004, and it’s relentlessly funny. Disarming and joyful — “Ah, this isn’t a joke, this is just a sad, true story” — Matafeo is a delight from start to finish.

This is the “work in progress” show, she explains, weighing up the future of some jokes after they land. If so, I’ll be back to view the completed playground.

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You might have seen Matafeo on Have You Been Paying Attention or sit-com Squinters. She also appears with New Zealand improvisational comedy group Snort.

The Comedy Festival gives you the chance to invest in barely known people while their price is on the ground floor. This review is like insider trading. Do it.

Rose Matafeo, Horndog

Melbourne Town Hall, 100 Swanston Street, until April 22.

comedyfestival.com.au

Rose Matafeo is a delight from start to finish in Horndog. Picture: Supplied