It takes a gutsy woman to perform a season of shows whilst eight months pregnant. That is exactly what Janelle Koenig has done in her show Swell. This highly autobiographical performance chronicaled her journey from being single woman to pregnant with a partner.
The introduction to this show was highly theatrical with a comical pre show safety demonstration and the laying out of a tarpaulin, just in case an additional little audience member decided to join us. Janelle then settled into the type of performance she had made a name for herself in years past, plenty of enthralling stand up mixed with a few songs.
This show was classic Janelle with plenty of colourful innuendo and rather graphic descriptions of anatomy and sex. It was good to see that pregnancy hasn’t mellowed her. Considering that sex leads to babies most of her usual stand up material about promiscuous sex would slot in nicely with the topic at hand. I was pleased to notice that there was little to no rope in this show, her pregnancy giving her many new ideas to work with. There were plenty of pot shots taken at her family, all the more interesting given most of them were in the audience on this particular evening.
Janelle’s songs all related to the changes in her life as a result of the pregnancy, one of them being a parody of “I Will Survive”. Her singing voice wasn’t the strongest and they came dangerously close to becoming one joke songs, but she had a large range of comical descriptors to keep things interesting and entertaining.
There were a couple of segments of character work that introduced some foreign participants at a Prenatal class. Janelle launched into these without setup, but the pieces were structured so that you could easily follow what was going on and she linked these spots into the main thread.
Janelle took full advantage of her condition to milk laughs from her physical and mental abilities, blaming her food cravings for lack of memory of some lines and providing some gentle slapstick as she sat and rose from a chair. Even so, there was a fair amount of colour and movement in the show, particularly her choreography during the songs.
Swell was a wonderful show that will definitely appeal to females of all ages, regardless of offspring status. Janelle’s trademark smut ensured that the blokes had plenty to chuckle at as well.
Visit the Comedy Festival Website for booking details.