Dear Endora – Amelia Jane Hunter

 The tight outfit, bouffant hairstyle and mouth full of bad advice—oops, no, make that good advice in tasteless clothing.  Amelia Jane Hunter, aka Endora, is the agony aunt who tells it like it is. 

  Dear EndoraMelbourne International Comedy Festival Amelia Jane Hunter?  The tight outfit, bouffant hairstyle and mouth full of bad advice—oops, no, make that good advice in tasteless clothing.  Amelia Jane Hunter, aka Endora, is the agony aunt who tells it like it is. Apart from a fire evacuation (handled seamlessly) Hunter rolls out her show with a comic confidence and skill that’s a pleasure.  
The show is bracketed by Endora reading the obligatory ‘Dear Endora …’ letters and dispensing diabolically direct advice.  She lampoons ‘me time’ (“what’s this thing about me time…how much me time is too much?”), positive affirmations, the desire to “control the ph balance in everything that moves” and hurls around amusing 50s books on how to keep marriages invigorated while keeping wives unstimulated.
The central comic piece finds the gorgeous and acerbic Endora, accompanied by an (invisible) Everidge-like Betty on piano, opening an alternative festival for…well I can’t spoil it completely but it’s an irreverent romp through the sacred cows of all things alternative medicine and therapies, including colonic irrigation.  To repeat the very original lines would ruin the joy of hearing them roll out with the exquisite timing and well-proportioned language that characterises this experience.  You won’t go to a like festival again in the same frame of mind.
Hunter forgets herself at some point towards the end of the festival piece and raves about conspiracy theories and our right to know (!).  It’s lost me, although I tried.  But Hunter is smart, on the whole polished and very funny.  Worth seeing sans the fire evacuation.  Trades Hall 15 April 2011