Melanie Bracewell is undecided about what to pack for her comedy tour of the UK. “I’m leaving on Sunday!” yelps the Melbourne-based star. “I need to start packing! I know I will pack, just not whether it’s half an hour before I leave or now. I’ll pack every pair of underwear I’ve owned in my entire life and then realise, ‘Oh, I need some of those in my day-to-day life.’”
Her partner Shaun McCullough won’t be going with her – he’s staying home to “solo parent” their beloved eight-year-old dog Charles.
“Shaun did come last time,” explains Mel, 29. “He was very useful. He carried my bags on the trains!”
The trip is a real pinch-me moment for Mel, who first got into comedy at age 21 by winning a 7 Days competition via her blog Meladoodle. Since then, she has consistently won awards, including The Billy T Award for emerging comedian in 2018. She also captured Kiwis’ imagination with her uncanny impressions of then-prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern on TikTok.
As well as drawing big crowds to her stand-up shows on both sides of the ditch, Melanie has also written for Wellington Paranormal and The Project, and starred in Taskmaster NZ and Have You Been Paying Attention?.
She’ll be in the UK for three and a half weeks with her hit show Attack Of The Melanie Bracewell, before heading back to Australia and New Zealand for the comedy festival circuit, but the star did manage to squeeze in a catch-up with Shaun and Woman’s Day before she headed off.
“We’re clearly pretending to be in love for the press,” jokes Mel. “This is obviously a PR relationship, so it feels good to get it in print.”
Charles the dog is a recent addition to their family and they couldn’t be happier about it. The little cutie wouldn’t let the chance of a photoshoot pass him by and insisted on posing for the camera along with his human parents.
“Every time we’d pose on the couch, he’d curl up and just look at the camera,” says Mel, taking on a stage-mum persona. “Charles, tongue out! Look cute!”
Shaun, the proud dad, says affectionately, “He was really good at looking at the camera when it was time.”
When asked how long they’ve been together, Mel looks at Shaun expectantly, cheering him on. “Go, Shaun!”
“Four and a bit!” Shaun, 30, says confidently before then second-guessing. “Right? Erm, something like that. It’s not quite five.”
Mel nods, “It’s just because we went to school together. We’ve known each other for so long, it feels like we’ve been together all that time, but it’s not true.”
Despite Shaun teasing she’s his high school sweetheart, they didn’t actually get together until many years after, spotting each other on Tinder and then flirting online.
“The only interactions we had after high school were playing the game League Of Legends sometimes or going to a mutual friend’s party,” laughs Mel. “It wasn’t until 2020 and you had to look in your 5km radius that Shaun and I took it to the next level!”
The couple are clearly still infatuated with each other, glued to each other’s sides throughout the interview and even finishing each other’s sentences.
Adorably, the couple shared the stage in their high school production of The Jungle Book. The 7 Days star chuckles, “I was Baloo the Bear and Shaun was the snake, so we had a couple of scenes together.”
Shaun pipes up, “I had a trail of Year 9s as my tail!”
Mel takes over, smiling, “Just a ragtag bunch of little Year 9s following him around. It was so cute! I just remember him slithering up to me. He’s got a great neck to be a snake.”
The couple made the move to Melbourne after Mel was offered the job of co-host on popular comedy-news show The Cheap Seats, but Shaun is evasive, saying, “Um, yeah. I just came over. I’d quit my job, so there were no ties.”
Melanie interrupts, “Full disclosure: Two shows ago, I wrote a show called Forget Me Not about Shaun having severe memory loss when we first started dating due to a vitamin deficiency. The move to Melbourne is the shakiest part of Shaun’s memory. It makes me feel like I trapped him!” She looks at Shaun. “I swear you agreed to it!”
Shaun announces lightheartedly, “I remember a shipping container!”
Mel admits, “I’d had struggles with dating in the past and just after the first three months, it always fizzled out. But Shaun doesn’t even remember the first three months! He’s OK now.”
When The Cheap Seats is filming, Shaun works part-time for the show, researching and also finding clips. “It’s fun,” he says. “I have a job in cybersecurity which is four days a week… that’s about all I can tell you.”
Mel proudly adds, “A little nugget about Shaun is that he is also a competitive Esports [professional gaming] coach! He coached the best Halo team in Australia, NZ and Oceania!”
Shaun is modest. “It was two years ago, though.”
But Mel is undeterred. “That’s not that long ago! You got flown to Texas three times in a year to be at these huge worldwide tournaments for Halo and I think it’s so cool!”
The comedian beams with pride, but she’s not the only one in the partnership with the ability to brag. Shaun couldn’t be more enthused about Mel’s career.
“It feels special that I get to see both sides of her,” he tells. “The Mel other people don’t see, as well as her performances and the finished product. I like seeing her hard work pay off. You get to see good things happen to someone you can verify as a good person. And I love her, so that’s good too.”
The couple wish they could say they’re also filling their time in Melbourne going to live theatre and music shows, but they actually love nothing more than bird-spotting.
“We downloaded an app where you take photos of birds and the app identifies it, then adds it to your list,” says Mel. Then she remembers she’s about to go to the UK. “I’m so excited!”
Shaun moans, “Awww! I forgot about that!”
The sports-mad couple is overly competitive with each other – to the point they even had their first “Christmas Games” last year.
“Usually we go home at Christmas,” tells Mel. “We didn’t want to feel like we were missing out on lots of presents, so we got each other nine gifts each and in order to open your presents, you had to defeat the other person in some sort of game.
“Obviously, I won Christmas. I don’t like bringing it up, but that’s the truth and shouldn’t we be sharing the truth? That’s what journalism is all about.”
Melanie Bracewell: A Little Treat is on 21-23 May at Auckland’s Q Theatre and 24 May at Wellington’s Opera House. For tickets, visit comedyfestival.co.nz. Check out Forget Me Not on Mel’s YouTube channel.
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