Everyone’s favorite Toorak crusader, Marcus Green, suspects that the poor people of the world are up to something and by golly he’s going to tell you all his theories about it!
The punter’s impression of Marcus begins prior to the show in Bar Open’s mezzanine foyer, where he presses the flesh, giving them a clear indication of what to expect. There was the danger that he could use up all his best material in these interactions, but enough ideas were left for the show.
A creation of Chris Starbuck, Marcus spends the duration of the show basically having a rant about the evilness of the poor and what he suggests the privileged classes should do about it. He does occasionally veer off on tangents, such as his “Terrorism is a myth” theory, that don’t strictly follow the overall theme of the show. They only have a very slender thread that links them to the main topic. These do however give the audience a bit of an insight into Marcus’s thought processes. He also covers some of the historic failings of the white upper classes, which didn’t really fit with the character perfectly. A real bigot would ignore them completely.
Chris’ delivery is somewhat subdued, taking the route of a well bred and civilized Toff rather than the high energy rantings of a right wing looney. A somewhat angrier approach would serve the character well in giving the audience a chuckle at how clearly demented this man is with his absurdly snobbish theories. You would think with a combative title such as “Marcus V poor” that he would get more worked up in his hatred of the lower classes.
The material itself was a little hit and miss, with a lot of the humour coming from the ridiculousness and just plain wrongness of this man’s views. Some of it was potentially offensive to certain minorities and perhaps the audience felt a little guilty at laugh at some of these bits. It was later revealed that he had cut out a lot of the more extreme material after trialling it on some far left leaning friends who were more confronted by the character rather than amused by him. The reinsertion of this gear would clearly make the character much more cartoonish and amusing. The ending was a little abrupt and lacked a neat conclusion.
In a case of opening night nerves, the show itself ran much shorter than expected. This gave Chris the opportunity to have an informal chat with the remaining punters that deconstructed the show, giving him some pointers as to what needed addition, subtraction or polishing. The entrance of some intoxicated punters who were there to see the band that followed the show encouraged Chris to remain on the stage and work off the cuff. This provided some bonus laughs and gave us a glimpse into how well he can work in stand up mode. He discovered that by keeping people entertained you can encourage them to buy you beer!
In Marcus Green, Chris has created a fantastic character that has great potential. It will be interesting to see how he chooses to develop it. If he goes the way that the post show discussion suggested, be prepared for some high energy and very wrong rantings making it worth a look. For those who can appreciate the concept, laughs are sure to be experienced.