Rose Matafeo’s Edinburgh Fringe show may be called On and On and On, but the hour flew by.
The star, 32, hailing from New Zealand, takes the audience on a chaotic rollercoaster through her cynical lens, saying what we’re all thinking but are too afraid to say about the ridiculousness of modern day life.
Yes, the Starstruck actor goes there with . Of course, women supporting women is important and blah, blah, blah, but Rose’s observation that the global megastar was representing a level of basicness that should be tolerated, rather than celebrated, was a brilliant moment of audience unity.
‘I don’t care for Taylor Swift,’ she said before the crowd clapped in agreement. ‘No!’ she squealed, explaining that Swiftie rage is real.
But that didn’t stop Rose. The fearless comedian went in even harder. ‘Buy some better clothes,’ she pleaded of the Love Story hitmaker. ‘She looks like an Oliver Bonas notebook.’ Okay, slam dunk: this woman is gloriously astute.
The hour sees Rose go through a notes app she created – and failed to end, with it being thesis-length now – after a break-up. Thankfully, now out the other side, Rose doesn’t recognise the woman who wrote things like, ‘I have a lot of problems, but at least I have a heart.’
Not ending things is a theme throughout the show, and golden moments came from Rose digging herself into a particularly chaotic rabbit-hole of thoughts, before trailing off in intentional uncertainty. She’s incredibly self-aware as well as world-aware, which is a recipe for relatable comedy that breaks faces into smiles.
Rose’s comedy shines brightest when she spirals into an exasperated tangent, making shrewd observations about, for example, the insanity of Generation Z’s romanticisation of alone time.
‘Are the children well?’ she asked, and the audience expressed their agreement with a knowing chuckle. Is an Italian man having a ciggie on a step also thinking about being the main character in his life? Almost certainly not. Nope, the kids are in fact not well.
Her set is also peppered with imaginative metaphors, which are mostly bang-on belly-laugh material – like comparing dating men to collecting records – but sometimes stretch themselves, as she admits herself at one moment in the set.
Most importantly, Rose has an uncanny knack to step outside the bubble of 2024 life and say it like it is. As well as pointing out that the downside to living in England is dating British man, she simply asked of posh people: ‘What the f*** is going on there?’ She’s right, their blonde partners do look like their blonde siblings
So if you’re after a comedian to rip into humans and dig deep on topics such as dating, millennials, and 30s, look no further than Rose Matafeo.
Rose Matafeo: On and On and On is showing from August 13 to 16, and August 18 to 25 at the Pleasance Courtyard. .
