Nik Coppin shows himself to be an energetic and likeable comedian from the outset of his new show “Redblak”. Playing to his audience, Nik spends a lot of time in this show engaging in entertaining patter with his audience.
While Nik is a good natural stand up, much of the show seemed to be using distraction and deviation as a device, which is okay in itself, but I think it was overworked here.
His core material is intriguing and at times I regretted that he skirted around it as much as he did. The themes he touched on were Australiana at its best, and mysterious to most Australians in the audience. The usual patter Australian audiences expect from international visitors often drops into superficial current affairs topics, making the obvious gags that are already floating around in plentiful supply. Points really go to Nik here for not doing this, but really investigating aspects of Australia that genuinely surprise and captivate his audience (including a particularly astonishing one about the Essendon Football team – and I checked it, it’s true) . It would be lovely to see Nik investigate these kinds avenues more fully and spend the bulk of the show on them.
There were also plenty of moments which came straight out of left wing, some of which were quite odd and occasionally dark. These are some of his best moments and would be interesting to see him explore these aspects in the future.
Nik is a confidant stand up with a likeable delivery and he certainly had the audience laughing throughout. I recommend this show as a funny and entertaining evening and I’m interested to see where Nik takes his work in the future.
This show runs until the 28th April. For full booking details go to the MICF website