The RAW Comedy National Final 2007 was held at the Melbourne Town Hall on the 22nd of April 2007; and out of the 12 finalists, Jonathan Schuster took the RAW Chicken (and the prize money); Aameer Rahman as runner-up, and 16-year old Jack Druce taking the RAW Recruit prize.
Dave Callan proved to be an enthusiastic, cheer-rousing MC. With some tried-and-true material inserted in his MC set along with an audience participation bit to cheer the contestants with fists raised and a rousing “For Sparta!” (in reference to the movie “300”), he ensured all contestants walked onstage to a very warm welcome.
This is truly the year for Aussified-Middle-Eastern-wannabe-terrorists to take centre stage. First up was Xavier Susai (WA) who looked the part and opened with an appropriate joke. But instead of simply toeing the line of stereotypes, he weaved in his observations about Perth and even managed to squeeze in a creative promo for ABC based on his Sri Lankan mate’s name. I was highly impressed because though he was first up, from the get-go he’s on fire, just like a suicide bomber.
The second wannabe-terrorist was Aameer Rahman (VIC), the runner up. Though he was more closely focused on terrorism he came up with fresh observations on what it would be like if he were an actual terrorist (don’t worry, we’re all safe). Give him a few more years, he may be picked to appear on the Comedy Central “Axis of Evil Comedy Tour” (an actual US Comedy Central special) or even headline at various fine Afghani comedy caves.
There were two mums on stage; Ellen Briggs and Tracy Crisp. Both are of the Fiona O’Loughlin “I’m such a bad mum” school of comedy; though each of them did it well in different ways. Ellen Briggs (QLD) started with a shocker of a joke that combined pot use and incest. She definitely had the art down when it comes to sneaking in really politically incorrect jokes at the end of a nice yarn and she managed to launch them stealthily: You won’t see it coming, but you’ll know when it hits.
Tracy Crisp (SA) is also a stay-at-home mum and unlike Ellen she had a slow start due to her low-energy low-key delivery as the tired, jaded mother who’s seen it all. Her humour can be found in the dripping venom of sarcasm that builds up slowly and released as a flood in the punchline. The material can probably be the subject of a book called perhaps, “Me and other bad mums I’ve known.”
Shaun Conroy (QLD) is someone I’ve seen before at one of the Green Faces competition, where he did quite well too; and his confidence definitely shows, this is no raw recruit. As a regular everyday working man, he said things on stage that he won’t be able to in real life, and it’s obvious many people related to it. With jokes about Red Bull & pregnancy, being dumped via SMS, and of course everyday work experience material; he’s got touches of Dave Hughes in him.
Jack Druce (NSW) at 16 is the youngest of the bunch and the youngest RAW finalist ever. He was my other favorite to win as he combined both maturity in comedy with a youngster’s wild imaginations. With material on riot control during water restrictions; World War 2 as a sport, and baby deliveries and magicians, this young man will have a long, illustrious career in comedy should he choose it.
Saikim Wan (NT) is a half-Welsh/Chinese girl who made it clear from the start who she was. But instead of really talking about that unique angle she started out with life in Darwin and after that it’s off to the sea of blue comedy. While there are traces of political opinion in her routine, it was lost in the scene where she imagined a menage-a-trois between her, Dubya, and John Howard. Some measurable amount of political opinion can be found in some of her other blue jokes; though I can’t help but think most of the blue material was done “Ars Gratia Artis” – art for its own sake.
The D (SA) is not a stand-up comedian. That is because he’s paraplegic, and he took such joy and delight in making us feel that it’s OK to occasionally laugh at disabled people too. If there is ever a shining example of turning pain into comedy gold, he would be one of that. He wheeled in on stage and made jokes that no one else would have been able to get away with, including a series involving him and his blind mate. But even without using his disability as a major source of material, it’s easy to imagine that he’d make a very funny stand-up comedian nonetheless.
Anyone for Tennis (VIC) is a duo physical/musical act. Combine great physicality, some adversarial-yet-friendly banter, and a song about imagining having sex with their PE teacher. While their material was one of the more juvenile of the group, when it is set to a peppy guitar song, it was quite enjoyable and they do have musical talent to back up the material.
Alesha McCormack (TAS) is one angry woman. And I empathise with her, because her fiance dumped her 5 days just before her wedding. She’s a story teller and the delivery is closer to a monologue rather than regular stand-up; perhaps not the best choice when only given 5 minutes. But I kept thinking, “That would have made an excellent entry in a Toastmasters’ humorous speech competition.” At times, it can get a bit much that it felt more like a cathartic therapy session, but her bit on shopping at Supre is observational comedy gold.
The Maverick (NT) didn’t say much. He walked on stage in trackie daks and didn’t say anything. Then he took off his jacket to show his white shirt and started to draw circles on it. Each of those circles are buttons and he only said one word for each button that he pressed himself. As he added and pressed more buttons, his message takes on the significance of a Japanese haiku with a very political message, eg “John Howard – Kyoto – No – Economic Rationalism – Good”. Some of the word combinations made a very pithy yet excellent political satire, and while he won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, he’s memorable.
And last up was the winner Jonathan Schuster. Being last in this lineup of consistently impressive acts is an unenviable position. Though he has an awkward deadpan persona, he opened with a meta-comedy joke on “material” followed by a joke that bore the postmark of Wrongtown, VIC. Though there were no more blue jokes, he kept up the laughter by launching multiple shorts and one-liners like a savage salvo of Tomahawk missiles raining down on Iraqi terrorist camps. I’ve watched him 3 times all the way from the VIC semifinals all the way to the final. On technical merits, his sense of comedic timing is superb and he’s a master of bait-and-switch joke tactics.
Overall, there were 10 contestants that I would have been happy with to see as the winner; but in the end, there can only be one, and from the looks of it expect to see Jonathan with his own MICF show in the next couple of years.