A Stan is Born! is an often-energetic tour of one boy’s growing devotion to popular female (mostly North American) singers from the late 20th century. It struggles to share the appeal with outsiders, and laughs are scarce for a comedy festival show.
Alexis Sakellaris’ European parents moved to the USA, where our performer was born. When the child was 8 years old, for reasons unknown to us, the family moved to rural Germany. As Sakellaris didn’t speak German, they struggled to fit in at school. Thanks to the internet, somehow they discovered performers like Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion, and used that inspiration when performing in the school’s gospel choir.
The production has a few rough edges, and these compounded into some distracting structural issues. Whilst Sakellaris had a microphone above their keyboard, no mic was used in their regular addressing of the audience from the front of the stage. Given noise pollution from adjacent venues and the size of the room, we would have to strain to hear the monologue at times.
Also, the story could be a bit murky. The early use of English with a German accent was an efficient way to relay the thoughts of the school’s choir master. Later, lengthy passages in German forced us to guess at the content of scenes until the English summary arrived, creating some distance between us and the performer’s journey.
A line about rural Germans liking fascism, given no justification, also lands as unpleasant stereotyping. (All of the Germans I’ve met through work and study are well aware of their national history, accompanied by notable amounts of discomfort.)
Our investment in the story could be challenged early on when a lengthy descriptive segment was revealed as a fantasy sequence, recalling a less-liked feature of long-time soap operas. Due to this, we can feel some skepticism about later parts. One suspects that our immersion in the tale would have been assisted more clearly by separating the fantasy and reality elements.
The info on how “Stan” came to enter common usage was helpful, giving a sense of the show’s potential. But if you were dubious about obsessive fans, such as their tendency to be uncritical about the quality of their divas’ output (or the obnoxious behaviour that complicates the term), this show won’t do much to change your opinion.
It might just be that the heavy themes of unrequited love and homophobia need a more delicate treatment to make them fodder for comedy. Sakellaris mostly sings well in their self-penned tunes, and this show would probably hold up better (especially after some refinement) in a Fringe-type festival where there isn’t the same expectation of laughs.
Alexis Sakellaris: A Stan is Born!
The Motley Wherehaus (The Salon), 432 Queen Street, Melbourne
Performance: Thursday 2 April 2026 (6.00pm)
Season continues to 19 April 2026
Information and Bookings: www.comedyfestival.com.au
Image: Alexis Sakellaris (supplied)
Review: Jason Whyte