It’s safe to assume that there weren’t any members of the John Howard Fan Club present at Rod Quantock’s “Anconvenientlie”.
A not unpleasant feeling of activists getting together to discuss the long war against the Howard Government was in attendance, although one person was doing most of the talking.
Going to see “Comrade” Rod is like taking a break from the struggle while still fighting the, ahem, good fight.
Quantock, who pulled beers before herding everybody into a large room in the Swiss Club, kicked off proceedings with some audience participation involving Amanda Vanstone’s awful alternative anthem:
Home to first Australians, Joined from near and far, Shining light for freedom, Under southern stars.
After this pleasurable start of bad singing and the pretend playing of instruments, Quantock took us on an interesting and occasionally amusing, if rambling, tour of current political issues.
Topics included climate change, the influence of the Exclusive Brethren, conservative appointments to the ABC Board and Work Choices.
If you’re apolitical you probably should give Quantock a miss and go see another act instead.
It was possible to disagree with Quantock’s opinion regarding the payouts received from the State Government in relation to the S-11 protests and still enjoy his take on the subject because he approached it with good humour.
Even if he has been called a “far-left comedian” by a columnist who was mentioned several times during the show (see Bolt, Andrew), it seems more correct to say that Quantock’s of the “Old Left”.
These retro-progressives can sound bitter and incapable of lending support to the only group that can get rid of Howard, and this isn’t to argue that Labor’s perfect.
Quantock’s satirical wish to see Howard dead was expressed so much it became more nasty than amusing, while comparing Kevin Rudd to Mark Latham rightly received something akin to a rebuff from somebody in the audience.
It doesn’t take a degree in politics to understand that Rudd and Latham are very different people.
Nonetheless, if you like your comedy to be explicitly political, “Anconvenientlie” is recommended viewing.
Rod Quantock’s “Anconvenientlie” is playing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) until the 29th of April. For booking details, check the MICF website