Dark and twisted is how Australian Danielle Walker rolls at Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Comedian Danielle Walker promises to crank it up a notch with her Melbourne Comedy Festival show ever darker than previous offerings.

Danielle Walker’s mother last year gave her a necklace. It was stamped with the words: “There is no beauty without some strangeness.”

If there’s any truth to that, then Walker must be a very beautiful person, indeed.

Walker, 26, is unlikely to take offence at that, as this rising star of stand-up proudly acknowledges that the stamp of weirdness has clearly become her trademark — and one that’s working for her.

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She tells the Herald Sun it felt “pretty cool”, for example, to be dubbed in one PR blurb as the “rising dark princess of Australian comedy”, while a 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival review called Walker “a strange, if not perhaps slightly deranged, girl known for her dark and twisted everyday observations and stories”.

Townsville comedian Danielle Walker is back with Myths and Legends.

Dark and twisted is undoubtedly how Walker rolls.

And Australian audiences clearly like it.

After moving from her native Townsville to Melbourne in 2015 — and never having specifically observed or studied much comedy — Walker won the nation’s biggest open mic competition, the RAW Comedy festival in 2016.

She was chosen as one the five best New Australian comedians to perform in The Comedy Zone line-up at the 2017 MICF and went on to win Best Newcomer at the 2018 festival, earning her a series of gigs in London’s West End.

Her material varies, but the flavour never does — quirky and offbeat takes on the world, distilling what “makes me different and what makes other people different”. And her family “who are funny, but not for the reason they think they’re funny”.

“Yeah, offbeat, and a bit dark … no actually, really dark,” she says.

Danielle Walker is willing to take her comedy to the bounds of good taste.

And her 2019 MICF show, Myths and Legends, promises to crank it up a notch, she says, “taking you to places even darker than previously”.

Myths and legends? She explains some of it is literal and some figurative.

The notion of cool dads — hers naturally included — is a myth. The Loch Ness monster and mermaids and Tom Jones, they’re legends.

So, for a comedian so willing to take it to the bounds of good taste — talking about her mother’s Brazilian, or her grandfather’s madness — is anything off limits for this rising dark princess of stand-up?

“I don’t think anything should be off limits as long as you can make it funny enough, but having said that, I don’t tend to punch down, like making fun of victims … or people having a rough time of it.”

Danielle Walker, Myths and Legends, Mar 28-Apr 21, Victoria Hotel (Acacia Room), 25 Little Collins St, Melbourne. comedyfestival.com.au

OUR REVIEW OF DANIELLE WALKER, MYTHS AND LEGENDS

Rating: ★★★

Reviewer: Kate Rose

Sometimes there’s nothing better than a night out with your best mate from the country, who’s hitting the big smoke for the weekend with a big heart and bigger laugh.

Danielle Walker is pretty much that best mate.

She’s a relative newcomer to the comedy scene, but what her show lacks in polish she makes up for with charm and enthusiasm.

The material swings from sweet to the slightly surreal, via pelicans, piñatas and problem solving.

It’s occasionally patchy, but there are still some big laughs to be had.

Walker isn’t a major headliner yet, but she’s endearing enough to be one to watch.

Danielle Walker, Myths and Legends, until April 21, Acacia Room at the Victoria Hotel.