18 Jan 2018

Zoe Coombs Marr: for the love of Dave

From Summer Times, 10:10 am on 18 January 2018

Australian stand-up comedian Zoë Coombs Marr brings her talentless on-stage alter ego 'Dave' – "a sexist beer-swilling caricature of the dregs of masculinity" – to this year's NZ Festival in the award-winning show Trigger Warning.

Zoe Coombs Marr, Trigger Warning

Zoe Coombs Marr, Trigger Warning Photo: supplied

Zoë first got on stage as Dave as an experiment six years ago, then a friend gave her the "torturous dare" of performing as him for an hour. 

"Because I was doing really hacky jokes – the kind of jokes lots of comics have – I found when I started performing him onstage in mixed bills there'd always be some other guy who'd have at least one of the same jokes as Dave."

A couple of years on from her 2014 show Dave, someone asked Zoë what he would be doing now.

She guessed he'd have been called out for sexism and resorted to becoming a silent clown – which is how we find him in Trigger Warning.

Zoë says she couldn't perform as Dave if she didn't have empathy for him and she actually really loves the character.

"He's sort of aware that there's a problem but he's not quite aware of what the problem is and how he can fix it or how he can change it … He's really trying not to offend people but it's sort of impossible."

Sexist jokes used to get really big laughs and comedy can still be really sexist, but blaming individuals only alienates people and creates an 'us and them' mentality, she says.

"While there can be great glee and satisfaction in the short term, taking down an individual – and there are definitely individuals who need to be taken down and who will be taken down – I think that's only part of it."

Even though some people pretend it isn't, the comedy world is really politicised, Zoë says.

"In the next crop of comedy shows there's gonna be a gazillion women making comedy about the whole #MeToo movement, and they should because it's their material."

Trigger Warning plays in Wellington on 2 March and 3 March.