If you know a Greg or are a Greg then this show is for you
By Will Cox
You don’t meet many Gregs these days. There’s Greg Davies. Greg Kinnear. Greg Norman. Greg Larsen. Sixteen different Pope Gregorys (although I doubt any of them went by “Greg”). And yet the name conjures instant associations for comedians Mel McGlensey and Vidya Rajan. Normalcy. Averageness. Perhaps a bit of gormlessness.
“When we started making this show we thought Gregs were ubiquitous,” says McGlensey.
Comedians Vidya Rajan and Mel McGlensey who have a show called ‘Greg’.Credit: Justin McManus
“But there’s a generational drop-off of Gregs,” says Rajan. “It’s a tragedy.”
“It’s an issue,” adds McGlensey.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is currently taking over the city, and McGlensey and Rajan’s show Greg promises a beacon of absurd joy at the heart of it. Greg is an hour of absurdist sketch, improv and character comedy, taking as its starting point their fascination for a completely ordinary name.
“There’s an inherent authority to the name, an archaic dignity. It has an incredible mouthfeel,” says McGlensey. “Two Gs. It feels earthy.”
Vidya Rajan writes for both the stage and screen. Credit: Justin McManus
Rajan sums up the show: “What if there were these two people who, I don’t know, hit their heads, and suddenly got the idea that finding a Greg is the point of life? To encounter a Greg – what a blessing!”
The show comes after a busy year of touring for McGlensey, with her acclaimed show Motorboat (“A glorious feat of clowning”, as per The Age’s four-star review), which won Best Comedy at the Adelaide Fringe, the Tour Ready Award at the Hollywood Fringe, and was nominated for the coveted Golden Gibbo Award at last year’s MICF.
Mel McGlensey recently won Best Comedy at the Adelaide Fringe.Credit: Justin McManus
Rajan has been busy writing and performing on numerous television projects, including Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe and Deadloch. She’s also a Fringe and Comedy Festival veteran, with numerous shows and awards under her belt, including Best Experimental Artwork at the 2022 Melbourne Fringe for her interactive experience In Search of Lost Scroll.
The duo met a decade ago as part of a Shakespeare improv troupe, and they’ve worked together a few times over the years, but this is the first time they’ve worked as a duo.
“In duos you often have a straight man – one person trying to be rational – while the other person gets to be the goblin,” says Rajan. “But we can both be goblins.”
“That was really important to us,” says McGlensey. “Having spent a lot of time on stage with men, you end up playing their mother, or wife… what if we just gave ourselves the freedom to be the weirdos we usually facilitate other people to be?”
“You don’t need a rational player,” says Rajan.
I suggest that, if anything, the mythical Greg is the rational player. Rajan nods.
“If I see a fourth wall, I want to kick it down.”
Mel McGlensey, comedian
“They’re the authority, and we’re the two little freaks in the corner seeking their approval,” says Rajan. “Which is the condition of our lives, as women, comedians, or people of colour. Please, Greg, accept me!”
The result is something freewheeling and silly, a playground in which they could let out their inner clown. “When clowning goes right there’s nothing that exciting, beautiful, moving,” says McGlensey. “You can’t match that high. The next night it could be bad, pathetic, just doesn’t work. I live in the space between those two.”
“The bits I love in performance are the bits where anything could happen,” says Rajan. “Otherwise you could watch TV. I love TV, but I want to feel like it’s truly live, in the room. Being present like that is the closest I get to meditation.”
The “fourth-wall” nature of theatre, that the performance is here and the audience is there, doesn’t interest them.
“If I see a fourth wall, I want to kick it down,” says McGlensey.
This means audience participation is a big part of the show, but the duo are careful that it’s fun and not embarrassing or combative.
“No one will be humiliated at our show!” says Rajan.
“We might be humiliated,” says McGlensey.
“Yeah, we might be,” says Rajan. “But for your benefit.”
Above all, expect joy and innocence. McGlensey says she’s a lot less sexual this time around, and Rajan says she’s less “cursed” than usual.
“There’s a lot less sex and death,” says McGlensey.
“That’s the right mood to bring to 2025,” says Rajan. “What’s the silliest, most impish way we can have fun?”
“I think we have the same absurd brains,” says McGlensey. “They go in different directions, but we tether them together and see where they take us.”
They also want to see some Gregs come along. Consider this a call-out.
“Non-Gregs are also welcome,” says Rajan. “We’re not going to discriminate.”
“We wanted to, but we weren’t allowed,” says McGlensey.
“We weren’t legally allowed,” says Rajan. “We’d also really be reducing potential ticket sales.”
Greg is on at the Chinese Museum from April 8 to 20.
The Age is a festival partner.
Comments on this story are welcome – especially if your name is Greg
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