By Hannah Story
In the thick of the pandemic, in late 2020, Gabbi Bolt wrote a song about a rat.
The fledgling comedian and aspiring singer-songwriter wrote it in about 45 minutes, before teaching a music lesson. It was her contribution to a TikTok trend, where people were writing songs about the characters from 2007 animated feature Ratatouille.
Comedian Gabbi Bolt is about to make her theatre debut.Credit: Janie Barrett
Hers was told from the perspective of Remy the rat’s father, Django. When she woke up the next morning, it had 85,000 likes on TikTok.
It soon caught the attention of the producers of a planned live-streamed Ratatouille musical charity concert, and on the night, Trash Is Our Treasure was performed by Wayne Brady, best known from the improv comedy TV showWhose Line Is It Anyway?.
Now, Bolt will be making her theatrical debut in the Australian premiere of American duo Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian’s murder mystery parody, Murder for Two, which opens at Hayes Theatre this week. She plays Officer Marcus Moscowicz, a policeman trying to solve the case of a novelist who was killed at his own birthday party.
She’s come a long way from making TikTok videos in her bedroom in Bathurst.
At the same time as she blew up internationally with her song about a rat, she was also gaining fans for her Australian politics-inspired songs and sketches on TikTok. She had started the videos while in lockdown, including a duet with former prime minister Kevin Rudd. The project landed her work with satirist Dan Ilic and a spot on the Chaser team.
Those TikToks have since led her to a career as a musical comedian in Sydney, not so much stand-up but sit-down-at-her-keyboard. Her debut show in 2022 landed her the prize for Best Newcomer at the Sydney Comedy Festival and took her to Edinburgh Fringe.
When she was asked to audition for Murder for Two, she was convinced she wasn’t what the producers were looking for.
“I’ve never really thought I could do musicals,” Bolt says. “I’ve always thought I’d probably write one one day ... I never went to acting school or did musical theatre [in high school] or anything like that.”
Growing up, Bolt lived on a diet of Australian comedy, such as The Katering Show, Sammy J stand-up specials, and the Tim Minchin documentary Rock n Roll Nerd, as well as musical soundtracks – in particular, Jesus Christ Superstar and Rent.
“I’ve definitely loved musicals my whole life,” she says. “I think they’ve influenced me a lot in what I do. Musical comedy is just, by nature, very theatrical, with a lot of really silly lines thrown in.”
Bolt in rehearsals with co-star Maverick Newman.Credit: Phil Erbacher
Her co-star, fellow musical comedian Maverick Newman, plays each of the suspects, in a madcap 90-minute show where they each play the piano.
“It’s not easy piano,” Bolt says. “It’s really difficult, classical style, scripted, notated piano that we have to play while we sing.
“It’s probably the most difficult piano playing I’ve ever done.”
Growing up in Bathurst, Bolt harboured ambitions to be a traditional singer-songwriter. She gigged in pubs and released an EP, and while studying at Charles Sturt University, she even co-composed songs for the musical Schapelle, Schapelle (about convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby). Some were later refreshed by composer Tim Hansen.
“We only had two months to write everything,” she says. “So, there were some really great songs and there were some really crumb ones.
“[Hansen] took the great songs and made them even better, then cut everything that wasn’t working, and added his own songs.”
When Bolt needed to stop working her day job as a music teacher due to the pandemic, she turned to musical comedy and TikTok.
“I do sometimes wonder, ‘What if I’d gone and done the really serious, vulnerable musician thing?’ But I don’t really dwell on it too long,” she says.
“Even as a musician, I remember there were my serious gigs where I’d be about to sing a horrible song about a terrible break-up, and I’d be cracking jokes before I started.”
Bolt has been rehearsing for Murder for Two the same way she would a comedy show – with a lot of practice. It’s just one of the ways that her comedy chops have set her up to take on the role. Another is her ability to solve problems quickly.
“[I know] if something goes wrong, this is what I’m gonna do. My instincts will just kick in,” she says.
Even though Bolt has those transferable skills from being a comedian and a songwriter, sometimes she has to ignore her instincts.
“[In Murder for Two], I’m the straight guy,” she explains. “Half of my battle is not laughing, and not being myself.
“In comedy, you forgive yourself a lot more … there’s this thought in my head [doing comedy] that’s like, ‘Oh, well, if I screw up my own song, I can just act like that’s how it’s meant to be.’ If I screw up this, it could screw up everybody,” she says, with a nervous laugh.
Comedy has taken Gabbi Bolt to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe.Credit: Nick Robertson
After she finishes up Murder for Two, Bolt will be heading on tour as part of the Chaser’s War on 2023, alongside satirists Mark Humphries, James Schloeffel and Charles Firth.
After a meteoric rise in the comedy scene over the last three years, Bolt’s looking forward to slowing down a bit. She says she’s unlikely to return with a third hour of comedy next year.
“I really want to take some time to just write without the constraint of time pressure,” she says. “I want to write something a little bit more narrative. I don’t know whether it’s a comedy show or musical or [some other] project.
“I don’t want to get stuck doing the same thing [every year] because then it just starts to feel monotonous, and my heart starts to lose its grip. That’s why something like this is so great because it’s something I’ve never done before. ”
Murder for Two is at Hayes Theatre from August 4 until September 3.
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