Annie Louey promises her latest standup is comedy gold

It's a bold move to name a comedy show Gold, but Annie Louey is clearly up for the challenge.

"It's solid gold rapid-fire jokes for 50 minutes," she told AAP of her show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

It seems the only way is up for the Melbourne performer, who just last Saturday had gear worth $4000 stolen from her car at the Adelaide Fringe.

The experience left her in tears - the laptop and headphones she used to make online videos were taken, along with her electronic transaction device for selling merchandise.

But venues, audiences and other performers have come to the rescue in various ways, she said.

One venue passed on their surplus fees and a performer she met at the airport even gave her a boiled egg he didn't want.

"That's been the silver lining out of it, I feel closer to other other artists and other comedians now," she said.

Then, Louey's online appeal to recover some of the money exceeded its target.

"Especially with everyone suffering from the economic crisis, I can't believe that people still had the generosity to give what they could," she said.

Louey is putting any extra cash towards funding Gold, her first straight standup show in nearly four years.

It looks at the travails of turning 30 and the pressures of being single while living with a traditional Chinese mother who wants to see her married as soon as possible.

There's also Australia-China relations, an issue Louey covers in-depth for her gig on the ABC's China Tonight.

"At the moment, no one's doing satire about China, I'm not sure if they are afraid to," Louey said.

"But I've always believed that any topic can be up for consideration and made funny in the right hands."

Having started standup at the age of 16, she is confident in her own voice and grounding her material in personal experience, without thinking too hard about filtering for political correctness.

The next question is whether audiences are sick of pandemic jokes and Louey insists that moment hasn't yet passed, because she hasn't had the chance to air her best COVID material.

"Just let me have one bite of the cherry before it's over, because I think my pandemic jokes are pretty good," she said. 

Both of the biggest nights of the Festival, The Gala and the Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow are already sold out - perhaps due to the all-Tasmanian hosting lineup of Luke McGregor and Hannah Gadsby.

Annie Louey - Gold is on April 11-23 at the Chinese Museum.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs from March 29 to April 23.