Alice Tovey's Malice is "loud, angry, musical feminism. It's new aged atheism draped in sequins". It's comedy with a message, something the comedian doesn't mince words about. "Gen Y-ers are often labelled a generation of complaining, overly politically correct cry-babies without a valid opinion in their iSkull," says Tovey. "As a young woman in my early 20s, I'm often branded too young, or an idealist who 'doesn't understand the way the world works'. Well, I've seen a decent chunk of the world, and it's garbage, and I'm angry."
It's sounds like Tovey is going on the offensive, but while that's true, it's not an attack so much as a rallying cry. "I hope people leave feeling good about themselves and the way they think," says Tovey. "It's satisfying when someone stands on stage and echoes the sentiments rattling around in your brain... But, at the end of the day, it's all about me gaining self-validation to feed my ego. I have a gaping hole in my self-esteem that can only be filled with the love of strangers. Like me on Facebook."
It sounds like actively sticking a target over that 'gaping hole', but it's something Tovey's learnt to deal with. "It was difficult working out how much of myself I wanted to put in the show. That's part of the reason why I wear my crazy make-up on stage. It's safer telling people that you're a bitter little psychopath on stage when you're behind a physical mask. I'm very comfortable hiding behind my ego monster. Getting up on stage and telling people that there are parts of you that are pretty broken is both petrifying and liberating."
