★★★★: Maria Bamford bounces back into stand-up at Melbourne International Comedy Festival
She’s been dubbed “the funniest woman in the world” and credits Melbourne for putting her on the path to global fame. But it’s been a rollercoaster ride for US star Maria Bamford since her last visit to our city.
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Maria Bamford recently filmed a tribute to legendary US sketch TV show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In for Netflix, appearing alongside the likes of Billy Crystal, Lily Tomlin, Michael Douglas and Tiffany Haddish.
“It was very odd, very surreal, I was like (laughs), what is happening?!” says Bamford now. “It was so strange. And then me, I mean, what am I doing there?”
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Well, considering the unfailingly sweet Bamford is a titan of stand-up comedy who has been described as “my favourite comedian on the planet” by Stephen Colbert and the “funniest woman in the world” by Judd Apatow, it’s really not that hard to believe.
One of the most widely respected and adored figures in US comedy circles, she is extremely excited about returning to one of the first places that took her to its heart when she was awarded the Barry Award for best show of the Melbourne comedy festival in 2004.
“I love Australia,” she says from her LA home.
“I was kinda at a low point in terms of not doing very well in my home country (back in 2004) and so, to be able to go to a festival environment, which at that time we didn’t have any of in the US … it really was such a welcoming environment.”
Bamford (who lived in Adelaide for a time) pronounces Melbourne like a local and makes a valiant attempt to recall her knowledge of local culture: “I know that there’s meat pies. Is it meat pie season? And I’ve been to a few footy games and, uh, specky! I am not even sure what that is.”
So if she loves the place so much, why has it been eight years since her last visit?
It’s … complicated. Bamford’s brain, that is.
She’s been extremely open about battling mental health issues since her childhood in Duluth, Minnesota, suffering from acute manic depression, OCD and a condition known as unwanted thoughts syndrome, with horrific notions flooding her mind without relent.
Bamford battled these unwanted visitors head-on, parlaying potentially debilitating afflictions into inventive and surreal stand-up storytelling.
With remarkable voice skills, Bamford uses a cast of characters to shine a light on some of darkest places imaginable while (somehow) making it consistently funny, blitzing audiences with ideas the full weight of which don’t hit until the belly laughs subside.
In 2011, she was enjoying the most successful run of her career before an unravelling occurred.
After slowly emerging from that tailspin, Bamford went about creating rapturously received stand-up specials and a wildly inventive and intensely personal Netflix sitcom called Lady Dynamite that co-starred a who’s who of US comedy.
The degree of difficulty of creating a hilarious show whose central theme is its main character’s depression is dizzyingly high.
Bamford and her co-creators pulled it off, just about.
“I’m very happy. I do feel like it ran its course (Netflix cancelled it after two critically acclaimed seasons),” she says.
“I think it’s definitely a niche show. I’m delighted and amazed it was ever made at all.
“And shooting a TV show is super hard (laughs) and they were very kind to me, I had a tent on set so that I could fall over any time I wasn’t on camera.
“But it was still a little beyond what I was able to do, the meds I’m on … a 16 to 18-hour day is just too much.
“Everyone was a delight to work with and very understanding, and the nice thing was that the story was so personal it was like yeah, this is real guys! (laughs) I gotta go lie down!
“And you know this next scene where I cry through a sponge, yeah it’s actually gonna happen if I don’t lie down.”
Recent times have seen Bamford’s state of mind improve immensely, with a four-year marriage and a medication routine helping to provide a consistently even keel.
All of which has led to an adjustment to her creative process that has a pretty compelling upside.
“(Ideas) come slowly (now), they don’t come all in a rush,” she says.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had a delightful rush of ideas. I can still have it if I have a cold brew (coffee) then I can have a little miniature version of it, but I have to go off my meds in order to have a delightful cornucopia of ideas, now it’s just sort of a slow plodding.
“But the delightful thing is that I no longer want to off myself so that is the trade-in, I don’t get that rush of ideas but I also don’t get that edginess of things feeling super terrible.
“So that’s great. Yay!”
Given the welcome change in personal circumstances, can audiences expect something similar to what they may have seen from you previously?
“Yes, in terms of it will be a bit personal, the go-tos: religion, family, friendships, love, and some politics because it’s unavoidable (she’s not the biggest Trump fan) and yes, ennui coupled with a dollop of hope or I don’t know, just on the side.
“Hope on the side, it’s how I like my hope.”
Bamford plans to check out some other shows during her flying visit, name-checking Felicity Ward, Fiona O’Loughlin and David O’Doherty and a “magical” act she saw during her last visit that we unfortunately were no use in helping her put a name to.
“With the meds I’m on I’m only awake three to six hours a day, so I can see at least two and three-quarter shows, and maybe one clown on the street.
“Do you remember the guys who drank straight vodka and they were clowns in the back of a truck?
“They were non-speaking and they would hit each other in the back of the head? I could have watched them forever, I’m sure there is something just as magical this year.”
With Bamford back in town, there definitely will be.
OUR REVIEW OF MARIA BAMFORD, THE IRRELEVANT REDUNDANCY
Rating: ★★★★
Reviewer: Patrick Horan
You’d be hard pressed to find a more rousing reception for anyone at this year’s festival as Maria Bamford gets as she walks on to The Forum stage, an enormous amount of love in the room for a globally renowned act who hasn’t graced us with her presence since 2011.
She proves fully deserving of the reception, spinning personal yarns about family, relationships and her own career with typically technicolour threads.
A superb script and relish for steering characters into unexpected places leads to many hilarious, and occasionally transcendent, moments.
We can’t say it’s the most consistent show you’ll see at this festival – perhaps a lot to ask of someone on as many meds as Bamford is, a fact she cheerily admits to – but there’s more than enough to enjoy in a joyously off-kilter hour.
Maria Bamford, The Irrelevant Redundancy, until April 13, The Forum, Downstairs.
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