Dave – Zoe Coombs Marr

Overview

You may have caught Zoe Coombs Marr on ABC2's Dirty Laundry Live or in post's bloody riff on death scenes, Oedipus Schmoedipus. Separate to her work with post, Coombs Marr's thing tends to be the timely topic of gender, and bending it. The "awkward sapphic high priestess of cool" (that's a description worth milking) confirms she's been dressing up as a dude (intermittently) all her life — like when she skipped schoolies to put on a drag musical. She's also won a Phillip Parsons Playwright Award and FBi SMAC Best on Stage in her time, which is pretty much as close as you get to having a quality guarantee.

Now, after a run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (where she was nominated for Best Newcomer) and just before heading off to the Edinburgh Fringe, she's bringing her show Dave (co-written with Charlie Garber) to Sydney. In a piece of 'endurance drag' meta-comedy, a bearded, bumbling, pelvic-thrusting Coombs Marr parodies Aussie masculinity in the comedy scene (and probably more widely, too). Dave's an ordinary guy — confused by female anatomy, bleeding from the head and joking about lesbians and turducken.

There are lots of comedians named Dave, but none are quite like this one. Or maybe they all are.