I love having guests bloggers and today I’m handing over the hot seat to Gourmet Chick, a Melburnian currently living in London who still knows what’s hot and what’s not in Melbourne.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival starts soon on Wednesday 24 March until Sunday 18 April 2010, and if you’re a bit bamboozled by all the acts on offer, here’s Gourmet Chick‘s guest post on comedy cabaret show Sunburnt Country starring Rosa The Russian Beautician and Friends. Thanks Gourmet Chick!

She sings, dances and waxes.  She is Rosa the Russian Beautician played by Melbourne comedian Marney McQueen, who returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this year with a new show, Sunburnt Country.  I caught a slightly different version of the show at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival last year (where it won rave reviews) and found myself laughing so hard that my laughter turned into those snorting laughs that are highly embarassing.  Luckily I was spared public humiliation by the fact that everyone around me was also snorting with laughter.  What more can you ask for from a comedy show?

Sunburnt Country is a comedy cabaret show where McQueen plays several characters, the well established Rosa the Russian Beautician  (who has her own ) along with four new characters: Karen Barnes a border security guard at Melbourne Airport, Annabel Sarah Victoria Winters-Smythe of Armadale Galleries, Damo Greggs an Australian recently returned from a life changing Contiki tour around Europe with a stopover in Bali and Raelene Dreggs a Gold Coast mother who’s daughter Shana is in jail in Bali after being found with ecstasy in her rollerskates at Denpasar Airport.

I can’t vouch for the new characters but I can say that on the strength of alone this is one Comedy festival show that is well worth seeing.  Never have you seen a woman make a leopard print catsuit and a mullet look so attractive.  I left the show with a sore stomach from laughing and still singing “Honour Your Bikini”, Rosa’s signature song, in my head.

Catch Gourmet Chick‘s guest post next week when she heads to Naked Japan in Albert Park. In the meantime, check out Gourmet Chick‘s fabulous blog about food in London and around the world (including Melbourne) and follow Gourmet Chick on Twitter .

• Sunburnt Country starring Rosa The Russian Beautician and Friends,  March 26 – 30, April  9 -13.  Friday and Saturday 9pm, Sunday 6pm, Monday and Tuesday 7pm. Tickets $35. Chapel off Chapel, +