Twice RAW comedy State Finalist (Victoria 2024 and ACT 2023), Chelsea Heaney brings her show Big Pants to the Adelaide Fringe after its debut at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and its successful recent run at the Perth Fringe World. Heaney has a dynamic stage presence and delivers her very funny show with full gusto making Big Pants one of the highly entertaining experiences of this year’s Fringe.

In Big Pants, Heaney recounts her Covid experience in Canberra, her loss of a cherished role as Rizzo in Grease the musical and the loss of her girlfriend. Further, after finding a photo of her mother at a similar age in which she is seemingly having a great time and having sex with Pierce Brosnan types in Greece, she decided to take a Contiki holiday in Asia only to discover that Greece isn’t in Asia. Undeterred, she embarked on her Contiki tour of Vietnam and Cambodia. However, the airline lost all of her luggage and so she was forced to wear the same clothing for a number of days even with the layers of sweat that built up on them. She further describes her Contiki companions and their adventures, especially Mike (aged 40) from America and Gabby from England. Heaney brings her hilarious anecdotes to a conclusion with a simple but important message.

Throughout Big Pants, she intertwines her narrative with her experience as being a larger person, her sewing skills (especially a very funny story about when she split her pants and sewed them up) and her reactions to situations through her RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) associated with ADHD. Linked also are her bi-sexuality and puns about boats and her obsession with an internet female lumberjack.

Aiding her comedy, Heaney sings and dances around the limited space of the Alley Cat venue at the Rhino Room. Her love of musical theater is apparent as she co-opts songs into the stories of the show. Her musical background is apparent with her commanding singing voice making the microphone often not needed in the small room. Audience members are also involved in her likable antics.

Big Pants is a delightfully funny achievement by Chelsea Heaney, full of humorous travel stories and self-disclosures, endearingly delivered in a narrative sprinkled with song and movement from this exuberant growing comedic talent.