Following recognition at the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne-based comedian Jacob Sacher will return with his show Promising Young Mensch as part of this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Performances will run from 24 March to 6 April at Motley Bauhaus in Carlton. Tickets are available via the Melbourne International Comedy Festival website.
Promising Young Mensch explores Sacher’s experiences growing up within Melbourne’s religious Jewish community in the aftermath of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Told through the perspective of his 13-year-old alter ego, the show reflects on his ultra-Orthodox upbringing at a school that was highlighted as a case study during the Royal Commission.
Seeking to blend humour with moments of vulnerability, Sacher aims to consider the complexities of what it means to identify as a survivor and the expectations associated with the term, inviting audiences to reflect on these themes alongside him.
The show was awarded a Judges’ Pick at the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival and was nominated for Best Comedy. Sacher’s previous achievements include winning the Melbourne Theatre Company Award for Excellence Off Stage and the Melbourne University Comedy Competition, whose past recipients include Hamish Blake, Sammy J, and Ronny Chieng.
Promising Young Mensch is part of a busy year for Sacher, who also serves as chair of Melbourne’s Corner Shop Comedy Theatre and recently presented research on Jewish comedy at the Australian Humour Studies Network Annual Conference.
