Review – An Evening of Total BS

<p>Everyone knows a girl like Bec Somers. She’s that always-enthusiastic, painfully-shallow girl who won’t stop bragging about being toned, vegan and gluten-free. Melissa Tracina, under the direction of Tim McDonald, adopts the persona of Bec Somers – ‘a wellness coach, health blogger, nutritionist, naturopath, and nutritiopath.’ The show parodies the often ridiculous and unrealistic nature [&hellip;]</p>

Culture

Everyone knows a girl like Bec Somers. She’s that always-enthusiastic, painfully-shallow girl who won’t stop bragging about being toned, vegan and gluten-free.

Melissa Tracina, under the direction of Tim McDonald, adopts the persona of Bec Somers – ‘a wellness coach, health blogger, nutritionist, naturopath, and nutritiopath.’ The show parodies the often ridiculous and unrealistic nature of health bloggers, who have become the cliché of modern society.

The show begins with a voiceover introducing Bec, ‘the author of Kale of the Century and host of I’m a Celery Get Me Outta Here’. Bec enters the stage to a roar of applause and greets us enthusiastically by running down the aisle next to the audience. She’s sporting a wide, cheerful grin which barely leaves her face throughout the duration of the show.

Bec begins by dramatically recounting her painful journey from overweight baby placed by her family on the Biggest Loser to kale-loving health blogger. She then makes it her mission to help the audience activate their ‘inner spirit wizards’ (I’m still not sure if that’s an actual thing) and become, well, her.

Bec interacts with the crowd, singling out an audience member in the front row and christening her as ‘Moonbeam’. Bec asks us to replicate her breathing and meditation exercises, and if you’ve ever been in a cringe-worthy high school drama class, you probably know what this feels like. With her eyes closed, she exclaims, “Moonbeam I’m not even looking at you and I know you’re doing it all wrong.”

Tracina as Bec Somers was highly believable, never once cracking from the health blogger façade. To her credit, I wholeheartedly hated her like I hate the type of person she was portraying.

For this reason, I think the director achieved what he set out to. Bec was a dramatised version of the health blogger character archetype he was parodying, but what the show lacked was originality. When Bec recounts her time on Masterchef, a voiceover mimics the show’s iconic Matt Preston – “this was awful… awfully good” – which is funny, but a joke I’ve heard plenty of times before.

Making a mockery of Insta-famous, turmeric latte-sipping vegans is by no means a new concept. There’s no shortage of memes and social media commentary surrounding this trademark over-the-top health and fitness lifestyle.

But I guess you can’t really call BS on a show titled An Evening of Total BS.

 
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