Functional Bottom
7 – 9 November 2024
Brisbane Powerhouse Riverside Terrace, New Farm
Internationally renowned, award winning non-binary artist, journalist and storyteller, Jessi Ryan returns to MELT festival with their breakout Melbourne International Comedy Festival hit show Functional Bottom.
A fusion of storytelling, contemporary performance art, filth, provocation and tears probably, Functional Bottom is a darkly humorous exploration of a year in the life of Jessi Ryan – self-proclaimed artiste, journalist, sex worker and hot fucking mess. In 2018 Ryan presented CRY- a moving series of photographic portraits – at Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the inaugural Melt Festival, and are beyond excited to return to their hometown as part of Melt Festival 2024.
This is Ryan’s first foray into comedy, but how else to respond to an annus horribilis which began with nearly dying on the emergency room operating table, the removal of their colon, the death of their scat-loving sugar daddy, and being a queer journalist in the era of Neo Nazis?
Likely the only Melt Festival show to feature a colostomy bag as a supporting actress, Functional Bottom is directed by award winning trans comic Anna Piper Scott, and explores love and survival through the lens of being queer, sex work, medical emergencies, fart jokes, loss, and clinging on with your exquisitely manicured fingernails. Deflection, after all, is one of the highest artforms.
Strap yourselves in – raw, unapologetic, messy, chaotic – Functional Bottom is one hell of a bumpy ride. Nothing is off limits and rubber gloves are totally optional.
For ticketing and further information, visit the Melt Festival website
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