Review – Justine Sless: Tomatoes & Other Stakeholders

“It just seemed like a good name” says Justine Sless of her latest offering; “They ask you, back in August what it will be called, and you think up a good name, but you don’t really know what the show will be about.” And so it unfolds.

Sless soothes us with her Northern-English lilt and sticks us with her dagger wit. Well, perhaps more a Laguiole paring knife wit. This is Radio National based comedy, and the barb is directed at no one more acutely than Sless herself.

Topics broached include typification of Melbourne’s northern suburbs, middle-class, middle-age smug, and a compare and contrast of not-for-profit, local government and corporate work. This is comedy dressed in ‘sensible shoes, natural fibres and a smattering of Elk jewellery’. It’s dry yet engaging, and the jokes themselves are very, very good. The show lacked structure and at times it felt a little like we were drifting through, but Sless is talented enough to take this in her stride and doesn’t let losing a bit of the show, unexpected audience reactions or getting the giggles herself phase her.