When comedian Cal Wilson moved to Melbourne the thing that struck her about the city was not the erratic weather or the abundance of black clothing, but rather, our peculiar fondness for Australian Rules football. ‘The thing I found really funny when I first got here is that everyone said, ‘Oh you’ve got to choose a team,” the Melbourne International Comedy Festival veteran tells. ‘Even if you don’t really like footy, you’ve still got a team you barrack for ’cause it saves time.’

Two years later, the New Zealand-grown TV regular found she had ‘kind of gone mental’ for the game and now brings us Up There Cal Wilson, a stand-up extravaganza which takes the audience through the ins and outs of selecting a side.

In a town where most people, if they aren’t born into barracking for a particular team, have most certainly chosen one to shackle their hopes to by the end of primary school, AFL proselyte Wilson feels rather like ‘the new girlfriend of an older guy that everyone else has known for years. They’ve got all these stories about him and you’re like ‘Oh, I didn’t know you’d been married before!” she laughs. ‘You guys know it all.’

Up There is an outsider’s look at Aussie Rules for those who love and those who love to hate the game. Wilson performs an on-stage assessment of each of the teams that finished in 2005′s Top 8 (in light of their uniforms, anthems, key players and coaches), and looks closely at just what it means to support a particular club.

Following numerous conversations with a variety of footy nuts, Wilson is convinced that the culture is so deep-seated in the Melburnian mindset that football fans ‘get their identity from it. People judge people on their teams,’ she says. ‘It’s like another horoscope. It’s like ‘Oh, you’re a Scorpio, or, oh, you support Collingwood.”

Audience interaction is a favourite pastime for Wilson, but is she worried about being hassled when she finally reveals her side? Passionate fans can be mighty touchy. ‘I’m expecting I may get a few murmurs of ‘You can’t say that!’ But people just seem to love talking about footy and being hassled about footy and hassling other people about footy, so I think that even if you don’t like what I’m saying about your team, you’re gonna love what I’m saying about everyone else’s!’