Kate Dehnert at Theory Bar

11 April 2026 in Melbourne, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF).

Back in 2015 we saw Kate Dehnert's show Pony Yell at MICF and it was brilliant. Surreal, magical and very, very silly. Since then I have been keeping an eye out for her shows but I never spotted one, and eventually I forgot about her.

Then just the other day Mike recommended it like a little gift ejected out into the digital ether. I recognised Kate's name again ("oh yeah...") and a few days later it became the perfect little Saturday night plan. So off we went.

It turns out she had moved to the UK which is probably why I couldn't find any of her shows. It further turns out she has recently been through the wringer with a high-impact breakup, and this was the topic of her new show, Echo.

It was great. I am a real sucker for musical numbers which goes a long way towards describing why I enjoyed this so much. Kate holds nothing back, letting us all the way into her embattled psyche and all of the weird shit in there, largely through song.

My biggest laughs came in the part when she was in conversation with reliable old Myer (the department store). Much of the show was hysterical. I think (in particular, but not solely) anyone who has had to rebuild themself after splitting up with a (realised in retrospect) complete dipshit will enjoy this.

There are still several shows left so get onto it.

I should also address the issue of the image included with this post. This incredibly cute semaphore crab has nothing to do with Kate Dehnert, MICF, or anything else mentioned in the post. I just love this photo and am incredibly proud of having taken it.