Cousin Tara: Wukkas – Melbourne International Comedy Fest

Best Cabaret, Nominee 2020 Fringe at the Edge of the World.

Cousin Tara delivers an hour of eclectic musical comedy cabaret that would make Rachel Bloom burst with frenzied delight.

Tara is a worry-wart of the worst variety. Her whole life she’s been told to take it easy, and now that she’s medicated and therapised, she’s ready to sing the world into a splendour. With her original songs and charismatic wit, your cabaret cousin hurls herself toward a future uncertain, asking: "can I ever be anxiety free while capitalism is eating me?" Maybe she was right to worry...

Cousin Tara (Tara Leigh Dowler) is a Melbourne-based comic and songwriter. In 2019, she premiered her debut solo comedy show Taranoia at the inaugural Hobart Fringe at the Edge of the World where she took home the Spirit of the Fringe award. She has written and performed in three Melbourne International Comedy Festival seasons and has been described as a 'comedy vampire' (Pop Culture­-y) for her camp, gothic overtones.

She forms one half of acclaimed feminist ­comedy-­cabaret duo Pink Flappy Bits (‘controversial’, Herald Sun) and appears regularly with the Two Little Dickheads (‘a bombastic doozy, if there ever was one’, Australian Arts Review) and The Spoon Monkeys (‘fun, solid clowning ­improv from masters of the genre’ – Improv Attacks Humanity). Tara’s most recent production, Cousin Tara's Intervention Variety Hour, premiered at Melbourne Fringe to rave reviews.

"It's perceptive, personal and just wukking funderful." - Tasmanian Times

"Dowler is a very talented musician and composer, and a delightful storyteller; there is a manic energy to her performance style." - Pop Culture-y

Accessibility:
Appropriate for audiences 16+.
Venue is wheelchair accessible. Please private message us re: individual access needs.

This work was created on the lands of the Wurrundjeri people of the Kulin nation and the Muwinina, Palawa and Pakana peoples of Lutruwita. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging of these lands. Sovereignty was never ceded.