★★★★★

While there has never been anything inherently bad about the stand-up of Felicity Ward, it’s safe to say she is a thousand times the comic she was even five years ago. Broader strokes and intentionally hammed-up stories have been refined and worked into material that is at once all too real and all too funny on account of the former.

Ward is sharp, consummate and all-encompassing as she takes a packed-out Giant Dwarf through the ins and outs of her life – although, perhaps ups and downs is a better directional pursuit when it comes to dissecting her latest hour. For every positive that enters her life – her fiancée, for one, as well as her niece (who scores some of the biggest laughs of the evening vicariously through Ward’s storytelling) – Ward encounters an obstacle due to her mental health and bouts of anxiety.

Understandably, bringing up either of these issues (not to mention Ward’s IBD, which completes what she calls her “triple threat”) is murky territory for the average comedy-goer – it’s not something that’s discussed all that often, and it has all the potential to fall into pure discomfort. Even so, Ward is fearless in her addressing and dissemination of these topics – to her, it’s a chance to not only reclaim something that can often be used cruelly against those who live with these illnesses, but it’s a chance to find laughter in normally negative spaces.

It’s here that Ward thrives, showing just how far she has come as a performer, writer and entertainer. Whether it’s going to particularly silly measures to soften the blow of a self-harm story or pelting toilet paper across the stage in an extremely funny display of her Muppet-inspired physical comedy, Ward proves there is so much more to mental illness than sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself – and even when that comes up, there’s a side to it that allows one to laugh with rather than at.

That’s the joy that comes with What If There Is No Toilet?, and makes it her finest show by a considerable margin. It takes what is often seen as a life of tragedy and provides a guiding light into triumph, both on a creative and personal level. God loves his children, but right now he is especially proud of this creation.

Felicity Ward was reviewed at Giant Dwarf on Sunday April 24 as part of Sydney Comedy Festival 2016.

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