Building her hour-long set around a 16,000-word note kept over time on her phone, Rose Matafeo leans into her insightful and self-deprecating humor to share candid takes on relationships – from dating in her 20s vs. 30s to supporting friends through breakups and the stark differences between herself and her parents at the same age.
Review
Was any standup show more keenly anticipated than Rose Matafeo’s follow-up to her award-winning 2018 set Horndog? You can forgive the delay: the New Zealander has been establishing herself in the hearts of millions since, with her hit TV romcom Starstruck. She’s been busy with affairs of her own heart, too. On and On and On is a pretty stark interrogation of Matafeo’s love life – more star-crossed than starstruck, or doomed by the 32-year-old’s suite of domineering neuroses. Which, if disastrous for her relationships, are a gift to her comedy.
No need to worry that TV success might have blunted Matafeo’s standup: this set feels closer to the bleeding edge than anything she’s done before. And just as funny. Its keynotes are candour, an unforgiving intelligence, and a refusal to be glib about anything. Her voice feels compulsive, as if she might talk, explain, rationalise her way out of the emotional labyrinth. We’re on Jessie Cave’s oversharing terrain, as Matafeo spills the contents of a 16,000-word journal she kept on her smartphone’s notes app, recalls her lonely 20s in London (and all those misjudged relationships with posh men), then addresses the fallout from a more recent breakup.
