Maren May: Why Haven't You Listened To That Song I Sent You? comedy review – Crush hour
From David Hasselhoff to Shaggy, Maren May turns a lifetime of intense infatuations into a relatable hour of comedy
Maren May will tell you herself: she has a habit of forming crushes and forming them quickly. This pattern has plagued her from youthful fascinations with the likes of David Hasselhoff and musician Shaggy and by now she’s a seasoned expert on all things to do with limerence (the superior word for obsession). Luckily for us, she’s turned that expertise into her best hour of comedy yet.
Confident (‘she’s got every reason to be’) on stage, May brings an hour of comforting, relatable laughs with her new show. Taking you through her opinions on Australian pubs (‘boy aquariums’, if you didn’t know), music festival blunders and the plaguing philosophical quandary of how obsessed is too obsessed, every word is something new to laugh along to.
Her stage presence is uniquely feel-good. She’s down to play off the audience if they’re feeling chatty, but more than able to claim her own spotlight with her anecdotes about awkward moments and everything surrounding them. In May’s richly welcoming presence, even something as cautioned against as letting an obsession get the better of us seems entirely worth it (just once or twice). If nothing else, she’s living, kickass proof there’s something worthwhile about putting some of your eggs in the occasional wrong basket. And even if you’re not one for cycling through fascinations and hyper-fixations, by the end of this hour you’ll be glad that May is.
Maren May – Why Haven’t You Listened To That Song I Sent You? concluded at the Alley Cat at Rhino Room on March 22.