Technically there are only three jokes in Rosie Jones’s uproarious new show, Triple Threat. Or, so she tells us. The UK-based comedian - who last wowed Melbourne audiences in 2019 as part of New Order – firmly believes in the ‘rule of threes’, or a comedy triple; a staple for any good stand-up comedian. The rule is simple: tell audiences a joke once and they’ll laugh, but tell it in variation three times and you’ll strike gold.
Thankfully Jones’s carefully crafted sixty minute set has much more than three jokes to its credit. Packed to the brim with bawdy witticisms, cracker punchlines and her signature brand of brash confessional humour, it is a shining example of expert comedic timing matched by skilled delivery. But her tongue-in-cheek promise of three jokes drives the show. In fact, while we wait for our three jokes, Jones - with a mischievous grin - tells us to expect three expletives too.
Jones has made a name for herself since 2019 with star-making turns in the writers' room of Netflix’s Sex Education and Channel 4’s Disability Benefits, among others. Her stand-up centres her experience as a gay woman with cerebral palsy with fine-tuned wit and an unapologetic lewdness. She’s a triple threat; she tells us: ‘gay, disabled, and a prick’.
She’s also a ‘national treasure in waiting’, anxiously awaiting the passing of David Attenborough so she can assume her rightful title. But if she can’t attain national treasure status in her home country, it’s only a matter of time before she achieves it here. The audience in the Westin One followed her every word. Jones is simply magnetic to watch; her charisma comes in spades as she delivers a tightly wound routine of well-structured and sardonic bits, completely unafraid to mine her audience’s sensitivities. Punchy one-liners come one after the other while anecdotes - from buying a flat to having her heart broken – are recounted with mischievous live-wire energy and an ever-present grin.
Triple Threat is a dazzling testament to Rosie Jones’s enviable skills as a stand-up and a near-certain promise of a national treasure title to come. Fresh, unpredictable, it’s expertly written, paced and delivered; a real highlight to this year’s festival and a show worth seeing again and again – three times if you can muster.