It is April Fools Day, and I am, very fittingly, attending a show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival: Keep Me Young performed by Sez. I have been following Sez online ever since I stumbled across a video of her reviewing the toilets at Flinders Street Station on my Instagram reels. Intrigued by her videos that seem trivial and silly, yet incredibly close to home, I’m curious to see how well her humour can translate to the stage. When I walk into the basement of Victoria Hotel to bangers by Charli XCX and Australian icon Amyl and the Sniffers, I know this will be a relatable and unforgettable show.

As Australia’s number one artist and poet (and number two athlete and number six dyslexic bisexual), Sez’s musical comedy is a show for the girls, the gays and the fellow Gen-Z doomscrollers going through their third quarter-life crisis of the month. Starting the show with a vocal warm up exercise with the audience, Sez establishes that this performance doesn't take itself too seriously as she prompts the room of people to make monkey noises at each other.

With the help of a guitar, omnichords and her teenage diary, Sez tells us cringeworthy stories from her 26 years of living. From tales of living in a sharehouse in Brunswick to embarrassing escapades at the club (that involve broken front teeth and a bruised ego), every story receives sympathetic winces and ceaseless laughter from the crowd. The musical comedy is vulgar, refreshing and authentic. Sez cuts through the bullshit of toxic positivity and asks us to sit with those mortifying memories to find the joy in laughing at your own misery. As Sez retells her stories, we are comforted with the realisation that maybe our blunder years weren’t that bad after all! At least we’ve never left the club with a mouth full of blood and missing teeth. Even as she sings about failing to find love at the pub, there is something beautiful about Sez’s songs; even our worst moments deserve to be shared and celebrated. We do it for the plot, as people on TikTok may say.

The catchy tunes performed by Sez make up the bulk of the show, but I feel like there is unexplored potential in her crowdwork. While the show is incredibly engaging and gripping as is, Sez’s easygoing and agreeable personality is perfect for more audience interaction. I really enjoyed the call and response elements at the beginning of the show along with Sez’s lighthearted ribbing of audience members in the front row. I would love to see more of that in her future comedic endeavours. This is only Sez’s second year performing at the comedy festival, and I look forward to see how she will continue to grow as a comedian.

Set in a dark basement amongst strangers, the show somehow had the vibes of sitting in a shit-talking session with your best friend at a sleepover. Perhaps it was the ambient fairy lights illuminating our smiling faces. Keep Me Young was a delightful show that left me with my cheeks aching from laughing so much. It was a night of laughs with people who also don't know what they’re doing with their lives, and I couldn’t ask for a more perfect way to finish off my April Fools Day.