Type: Comedy Festival, Stand Up, Selective Chaos
If You Liked: NZ Taskmaster, Lou Wall
Abby Howell’s The Cave feels less like a structured stand-up set and more like a guided tour through a brain that refuses to sit still, and that’s exactly its strength. Leaning hard into a distinctly Kiwi strain of self-deprecation, Howells invites the audience into her internal chaos, where every thought spirals just a little further than expected.
There’s a looseness to the show that works in her favour. Bits about “home” and the strange logic of rooms drift in and out, less as polished routines and more as fragments of a mind constantly reprocessing the world. One standout thread is a childhood anecdote from a Wizard of Oz play, where Howells played Dorothy opposite a friend cast as Toto – except, as she bluntly puts it, the friend “looked like the gimp”. It’s absurd, slightly unhinged, and delivered with a disarming casualness that it makes you laugh before you fully process why.
Her humour often lives in these unexpected turns. A throwaway line about a friend nicknamed “Salty Peanuts” (for reasons that are, predictably, both juvenile and oddly specific) lands because of Howells’ commitment to the bit, not despite it. Similarly, a story about attending a horror screening as the only person in the audience becomes less about fear and more about the bizarre intimacy of the situation.
Physically, Howells is just as compelling. There’s a willingness to fully commit – whether that’s dropping into “the worm” mid-set or using her body to punctuate punchlines – that adds texture to what could otherwise be a purely verbal performance.
A particularly sharp segment riffs on pop culture, where she admits to ignoring most of Taylor Swift’s output but becoming inexplicably attached to “Life of a Showgirl”. It’s a small moment, but it captures the show’s essence: selective obsession, filtered through a lens of mild confusion.
The Cave isn’t tidy, but it doesn’t need to be. Howells’ appeal lies in her unpredictability – her ability to make chaos feel coherent, at least for an hour.
See our other reviews from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in the link below
Tickets and Practical Info for The Cave at MICF 🎟️
Tickets: https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/the-cave/
Ticket Prices: $28 – $34 Laugh Pack
Time: 6.00pm| 5.00pm| 4.15pm
Venue: Melb Town Hall – Powder Room
Duration: 60 minutes
Suitable for audiences 15+: Language – occasional coarse language
