Wow. I can definitely say that having seen the first two thirds of Three Colours Hammo that this is shaping up to be the best show I’ve seen at this year’s Comedy Festival. The title sets the tone of part two of Justin Hamilton’s Trilogy; ‘Laugh & Death’ is the dark one, his Empire Strikes Back, his Back to the Future II (but good). Another masterfully structured piece of enthralling story telling, and although Laugh & Death stands alone, the story does follow on directly from his beautiful, romantic, first instalment, ‘Melbourne’.
The house music just before the show was The Beach Boys’ gorgeous, hopeful opening track of Pet Sounds “Wouldn’t it be nice?” The song reflected the emotional beginning of this journey exquisitely; the bulk of the show was about dreaming of a romantic happy ending, “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true”. On the other hand the show was balanced by an amusingly handled preoccupation with mortality and the discovery of nihilism when he was five years old.
He began with recalling the ending of his last show, by cleverly playing out the fantasy ending that he dreamed of, though it didn’t actually occur. Caliope has in fact, gone overseas and has been keeping in touch with brief dotty phone calls and silly postcards.
Justin wove seamlessly between romantic tales of why he loved nutty, beautiful Caliope, how he’s often found himself stifling inappropriate laughs at funerals and other riotous encounters with corpses and also managed to throw in some of his hilarious druggie related stand up shtick. Justin has always been the kind of comedian who told (possibly slightly elaborated) stories from his real life and it has been illuminating to have them put into the context of his life story in ‘Three Colours Hammo’. With other Festival shows you can often feel like the comedian has only been able to tenuously link his staple stand-up rope into the show’s theme, but has wedged it in anyway for that easy laugh. There is no sense of that here; it’s more like a melding of all the little threads of Justin’s life that he has found humour in over the years and thus used as stand up material. In ‘Three Colours Hammo’ it has all come together.
As an audience member I have always felt safe in Justin’s incredibly capable talented hands, but suddenly he lead us out of our safety zone and pulled the rug away. The results were devastatingly moving, but I will not spoil it. Go and see it yourself. No, don’t think about it. Go.
Take someone to snuggle up with; more importantly take a box of tissues. We drifted out of the Council Chambers weeping to the strains of the B side to “Wouldn’t it be Nice” – “God Only Knows [what I’d be without you]”. God only knows what the third instalment Hamilton and His Sisters will bring. I can’t wait.
’Laugh & Death’ is performed until Tues 24th of April (except Mon). See the “festival website”:http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/season/2007/show/316/ for booking details.