The Doctor Is In
When the esteemed scholars of a legitimate university saw fit to confer upon a young(ish) comedian the title Doctor of Philosophy they created… a monster. A monster who hides in plain sight, disguised as a humble artist, waiting for innocent citizens to make the fatal mistake of calling her ‘Mrs. Ballou.’ Then, like the Incredible Hulk, she grows too HUGE (no) green (nope) smug (that's it!) for her clothing, and as the buttons pop off her elbow-patched blazer she demurely roars ‘It’s “Dr.” actually.’
Dr. Ballou completed a practice-based PhD entitled ‘hoo:ha: Illuminating and Exploiting a Dissonance Between Funniness and Sexiness with the Female Comic Body in Performance’ What she insists this means is that she ‘literally has a doctorate in being funny and sexy.’ Through witchcraft and interviewing skills she has converted this accomplishment into a spine point 33 grade 8 lecturer position. This means she can now afford to foist her child off on (SORRY!) HAND HER CHILD OVER TO a trained childcare professional so that she can pursue her dream of responding to emails about problems with the virtual learning environment.
Alas, tending the artistic fires of undergraduate drama students is not enough. She became a doctor to save people, dammit! Therefore, Dr. Ballou has opened a clinic where she will diagnose and treat your feminist complaints via her trademark mashup of stand up and live art.
Shhh
a comedy special by a very pregnant woman
goo:ga 1 (2016)
'Frank and hilarious...' -Dance Tabs
Shhh is an ongoing live art experiment that premiered at the Yard Theatre in 2018, produced by Womxn SRSLY and subsequently developed for their showcase at The Place in 2019: Can I keep entertaining an audience while not waking up my sleeping child? The performance world… my world… is simply past her bedtime. What if she won’t go to sleep at all? Can we put her to sleep together and save the show? I’d better teach you her favourite lullaby just in case. A minimally-paid showcase of female-led performance is simply not accessible to parents who can’t afford childcare. Where’s the creche? Oh, there’s not one? Alright then; she’s coming on stage with me. Can I still be myself? I probably ought to turn down the volume.
Visit Marina on Tumblr here.
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