Show reviewed: 21/02/26

Show rating: A woo, DDs and 5 stars!

I love fringe festivals for the um “unusual” and risky little shows I get to see as much as the big marquis productions. Mel McGlensey is Normal is definitely in the neighbourhood of delightfully weird (and sometimes creepy!) fun. Coming off her success last year with Motorboat, McGlensey is once again redefining the possibilities and pushing the boundaries of improvised comedy and clowning during her run at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2026.

The show is based on the idea that Mel McGlensey will be allowed to perform at Big Comedy Gala if she can just not be weird. In an attempt to help Mel with her journey to normality, she has been placed in a simulation overseen by artificial intelligence “Normal” and forced to do things like bake bread and do sudoku. However there is nothing normal and not weird about the situations Mel is placed in to proving she is not weird.

The audience are able to vote on what Mel will do as normally as possible across different categories that I can’t include here because the Adelaide Fringe doesn’t like it when reviewers swear. There are so many titillating adult themes explored in this show alone my accreditation could be revoked for attempting to describe them all…my favourite genuinely though is the fan art. There really is fan art…

One of the elements of an improvised show that relies on audience participation like this one is that no show is going to be exactly the same as the performance before and I think this is where McGlensey (and her extremely talented tech/husband!) shines as artists using a video game system to control the tech in real time as the performance evolves.

The themes are definitely adult in nature and relies on the audience/artist energy exchange to make this a dynamic experience. The Bally was a responsive crowd that definitely got into the spirit of the show and were having a really good time with Mel.