Comedian Melanie Bracewell to perform her show A Little Treat at The Regal Theatre on Friday, May 16

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Comedian Melanie Bracewell to perform her show A Little Treat at The Regal Theatre on Friday, May 16

For popular comedian Melanie Bracewell, travelling to WA from the east coast of Australia is like an international trip.

“I won’t forget how far away (Perth) is because I’m from New Zealand and it is quicker for me to get home than it is to get to WA,” she said.

“But when I go to Perth I really try to make the most of it, it feels like an international trip for me.

“I have a few family members there as well. It’s always nice to catch up with them.”

The 29-year-old will perform her one-hour show A Little Treat at The Regal Theatre on Friday, bringing a chaotic night in her life to the stage.

“The show is basically about my lack of self control which I have now pinned down to actually being diagnosed with ADHD,” she said.

“It’s about one evening of my life that went a bit chaotic and led to me finally the next morning booking to get an ADHD assessment — so it’s me recounting that evening. It’s been so fun to perform.”

Bracewell also believes she is the only person in Australia and New Zealand to still be playing Candy Crush. Her pre-show ritual consists of doing and re-doing her eyeliner “about 15 times”, listening to a recording of the show she is about to perform and a quick go on the colourful, candy matching game from 2012.

Camera IconMelanie Bracewell. Credit: Supplied

“Right before I go on stage, I am playing Candy Crush on my phone, it’s just another mind-numbing thing that helps me not panic or think about the crowd,” she said.

“I know it’s kind of pathetic. I think I’m on about level 4000, it’s actually quite sad.”

One of the Auckland native’s favourite moments from her current tour was from one of her Adelaide shows in February, when an audience member totally misunderstood a question the comedian asked her.

“I talk a bit about netball in my show and so I’ve been chatting to audience members about netball and I asked ‘Who played netball?’” she recalled. “This girl in my Adelaide show, I said ‘What’s your position?’ and she said ‘I’m an admin consultant for a construction company’.”

The spontaneity of stand-up comedy is one reason Bracewell loves her job, but she also gets to provide the laughs on the TV show she hosts, The Cheap Seats, alongside Tim McDonald.

The show has entered its fifth season this year and while some may perceive a love-hate relationship between the pair, Bracewell said none of the “piss-taking” was serious.

“We have such a good relationship because we really can sledge each other because we know we have a deep respect for each other, (although) I hope you’re not interviewing him and he goes I hate Mel,” she said.

“None of it is serious, it’s all just entertainment, I think that’s my love language as well, when people rip into me or I can rip into someone else, that’s how I know we’re friends.”

After her tour wraps up, Bracewell plans to stay busy with the Channel 10 show, saying many were surprised to learn the pair write it themselves.

“Tim and I write the show, like we don’t just turn up and read an autocue,” she said. “Tim and I find most of the clips. We have a couple of researchers who submit some suggestions, but Tim and I will come in on Monday and be like ‘This is what I’ve watched; This is what I’ve seen’ and I think it helps the show with the authenticity of it because we know that we both find it’s very funny.

“We’re not just presenting this to an audience and asking some writer to put this together, and we’re just gonna say it out loud and take all the credit for it. We really believe in it.”

She also hoped to finally get a sitcom off the ground.

“I am trying to work on writing a sitcom. I mean, I probably talk more about writing a sitcom than I have spent actually writing a sitcom,” she said.

“It’s a real goal of mine. I love TV so much, and I think it‘d be a great challenge to put together a fiction show from scratch.”

At one point during our interview, Bracewell was kicked out of the room she was speaking from and almost forgot her swipe card that ensured she didn’t get locked out of the building.

After some pauses and a brief, awkward interaction at her end, Bracewell reassured me she was now in the privacy of the hallway

“As you can probably tell, I’m quite a chaotic person. Stand-up has made me embrace that more and view it as a positive,” she said.

“I end up having interesting stories because I don’t think things through very well, and I reflect on it well.”

Our chat is interrupted again, by a man kindly handing back her Apple AirPods case she left in the room she was booted from.

That reminded Bracewell of the last show she toured “about me tracking down my AirPods that someone had stolen and used”.

At least this time, “quite poignantly”, she had them swiftly returned.

As our interview ended, Bracwell wished me luck in translating our conversation into written form.

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