ETHOS, Alice Fraser’s latest comedy show takes on one of life’s biggest questions: what it means to be human. Recounting the realities of the female millennial experience, with intelligent wit and cutting social commentary, hers is a brand of comedy I can undoubtedly relate to.
The premise: Fraser has built a robot: ETHOS, her ventriloquist sidekick, after whom the show is named and to whom she illustrates the gap between humanity and artificial intelligence; a gap that the former corporate lawyer, believes can be all too easily bridged.
Speaking to Xpress magazine Fraser explained:
“It’s important now for us to think about what the difference is between us and robots. There’s a lot of robots doing a lot of things for us and with us and there’s a lot of jobs that are only still around because they haven’t yet figured out how to make robots understand sarcasm yet. We need to figure out what makes us different, what makes us special – what makes us human.”
Boldly turning to comedy to escape the soul-sucking monotony of the white-collar world, Fraser is as inspiring as she is funny. A proud feminist, her show opens a dialogue on what it means to be female in a male-dominated industry, notably mentioning the #metoo campaign and comparing sexual harassment to death in childbirth–something that no longer needs to be put up with by women. The topic concludes with an energy-raising sing-along to an anthem that opposes the sexual harassment of women in arguably the most hilarious way possible. Alice’s stage presence is intense, authentic and absorbing.
When talking to Beat Alice explained:
‘ Unfortunately there are a lot of industries that women get told they’re not good at and one of them is science, technology and engineering.’
Exploring the human condition through comedy, using a robot as a narrative device, is no mean feat and Fraser’s no holds barred approach ambitiously covers everything from career fulfilment to ‘jerking off’. The show makes for an elaborate feature that encompasses more than conventional stand up; philosophical musings are juxtaposed with the artificial intelligence of a robot and a rallying cry against sexism is backed by a banjo. Puns and brutally honest anecdotes are meanwhile interspersed with jokes and cultural references that flaunt Fraser’s intellectual edge. The heady combination doesn’t allow for the smoothest of performances but unwittingly–or perhaps not so–works to reflect the overarching theme: the idiosyncrasies and contradictions of modern life. The show has imperfections; certainly, it’s raw, unrefined and most importantly human.
Catch her blog, podcasts, poems and upcoming gigs for some thought-provoking laughs.