Melanie Bracewell, comedian, 28: Q&A

Comedian Melanie Bracewell on her new stand-up show, her famous cricketing family - and going viral with her Jacinda Ardern impressions.

Melanie Bracewell. Picture: Cameron Grayson

You are a Bracewell – part of the first family of New Zealand cricket. Has the name recognition been a blessing or a curse? It’s kind of an obscure blessing. It’s not like I’m related to Taylor Swift, it’s more like I get blokes at the pub going, “Hey, can you help us settle a bet?” I played one game of cricket properly in my life and was terrible. I have a low attention span so it’s far too long for me.

When did you know you were funny? I was quite a shy kid, but I ran a Tumblr blog when I was in high school and that gave me a bit of validation. Tumblr was never a mainstream social media network, you know, it was a domain for the outsiders. The TikTok for quiet kids. I found a community of people who liked writing jokes, and it kind of spiralled from there. It created me: I was forged in the fires of Tumblr.

What’s your new stand-up show, Attack of the Melanie Bracewell, all about? The concept is basically a true crime comedy about how I am attempting to track down the man who stole my AirPods. It’s what we call in the comedy industry a “gift” – when something funny happens to you and you go, wow, I don’t even need to do that much work, just tell everyone about the funny thing that happened.

During lockdown your impressions of Jacinda Ardern went viral. What was that like? It was a very strange time because in the middle of lockdown I was having bit of an identity crisis – and then I started blowing up, pretending to be someone else. I reached the point where I would just walk down the street people would say “Jacinda!” to me.

How did you come into the orbit of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, and become a writer on Wellington Paranormal? I was doing a gig in Wellington and this guy came up to me and he goes, “Jemaine sent me here, because he liked your tweets and wanted to scope out your comedy and see if you’d want to pitch ideas for the TV show.” There was a lot of the impostor syndrome thing – I genuinely was like, “They have made a clerical error getting me in here.” It was a lot of faking but they kept me on board.

Who are your comedy touchstones? My Dad would sit me down as a child and be like, “This is Richard Pryor.” So, I love Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks and Stewart Lee. It wasn’t until a bit later on that I kind of discovered my own taste in comedy which, you know, was mostly women.

Has stand-up culture improved much for women? Urzila Carlson sells more tickets than anyone at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival every year. It goes to show that there’s a demand for women on stage. The internet is a cesspool of awfulness, and as a woman in comedy one has to deal with that – but I think people are making space, at least in the real world. It’s not perfect but for the most part, I think, it’s pretty good. At least on our side of the world.

Your Network 10 show The Cheap Seats pokes fun at the news of the week. Why is that format still so beloved by audiences? It’s kind of grim out there. So when we look at world events, and kind of dilute it to shine a light on some of the silly things happening, it can give you a little bit of a reprieve. We’re sitting there talking so seriously about a cockroach race that’s happening in the middle of nowhere in Australia. We’re not afraid of making fun of ourselves.

The Cheap Seats is on Tuesdays at 8.40pm, streaming on 10Play