Fancy Feast is a double-bill from Melbourne-based comics Tristan Haze and Christina Schmidt that never quite takes off, although the potential of both acts is frustratingly obvious. After an awkward joint warm-up, Schmidt wins the coin toss to go first with a set made up of a stream of one-liners. There’s a hint of 80s slacker comedy about her delivery; her set is endearingly shyly awkward and her observations sharp, but unfortunately it never quite lands with an audience that desperately wants to like her.

Tristan Haze has a few more miles on the clock, which shows. His surrealist set is confident and carefully structured with a lanky energy that’s easy to like. The highlight, a little ditty called Bees Up My Ass is genuinely funny; his finale, a soft rock pastiche called Friday Night less so and bits in-between again just don’t quite land. That said, props to Arthur Arthouse for providing a space for up and coming performers to grow their craft; tonight wasn’t Schmidt’s and Haze’s but one day it hopefully will be.