The conceit behind 78% Honesty, as Baggers (Michelle Baginski) will tell you after her opening song ‘Dodgy Lodge’, is that she doesn’t see the evening so much as a show, but more as a date. She’ll tick the boxes of things she likes about you as the audience, and implicit in that is that the audience will be ticking the boxes of compatibility with her as well, and at the end of the evening you can both see if you’ve got something going on together. “I like an audience with a sense of humour.” she said later in the show.
Like any first date, there was some nervousness, a few awkward pauses, and the inevitable rant about psycho ex-partners. Unlike a first date, perhaps, Baggers also broke into (and out of) song every few minutes, pausing to switch self-created paintings on the easel behind her. These paintings effectively provided the chapters of the show, with a strongly reinforced visual image sharing space with the artist as she sang and spoke of the stories behind them. “What else can I tell you about myself?” was the question repeated before each new painting was revealed, as Baggers revealed more about herself to the audience.
Baggers herself had a sweet, self-effacing charm that it would be tough not to respond positively to. In spite of this, the show itself never really seemed to come together, and often felt unfocused and rambling. Whether this was the result of opening-night nerves or was an intentional part of the self-described ‘kookaret’ was difficult to discern. Songs were often abandoned halfway through, some set ups were never paid off, and while there was quite a bit of smiling among the audience, actual laughs were scattered only sparsely throughout the gig.
If it really was a date rather than a show, you might find yourself saying: “You seem really nice, but I don’t think this is for me.”
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