Melbourne Comedy Festival: Ginger & Tonic - Desperate and Dateless

Desperate & Dateless
The women of Ginger & Tonic open Desperate and Dateless with a played-straight rendition of Diane Warwick’s “Wishin’ and Hopin’” and I wasn’t sure what I’d walked into. The voices were beautiful but those lyrics are so awful and in a show that’s about looking for love, I was desperately looking for something to undercut this old-fashioned treacle.

Thankfully, the show quickly finds its feet with some spot-on satirical material about dating apps, game shows for love and how to weed out the undesirables when searching for someone special.
Ginger & Tonic are four women: a shiny brunette, a blonde that smells like Herbal Essences, a short cut brown-haired girl, and one with regrowth. You know, the whole spectrum of the female experience.

The pop-song parodies are sometimes spot-on, with highlights being “Tinderella” (after Rihanna’s Umbrella, ella, ella…) and “Beaver!” (hilariously ruining the passion of Fever). Other songs didn’t quite work, though – the rapping in “Whatta Man” was a bit cringeworthy and “Blame it on the Booger” seemed a bit beneath this team. I think I heard that lyrical joke when I was six-years-old and every child probably thinks she invented it.

As a group, these women have a strong command of the stage and when they are harmonising at full volume, the show is really magical. Get down to the Malthouse soon, because Ginger & Tonic just want to cuddle the fuck out of you.

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