Josh Earl opens his show by dispelling anyone’s misgivings about what a show called Where Did I Come From? will be about. Rather than an unsettling romp through his parent’s procreative activities, Josh approaches the issue in a broader sense, painting a picture of his origins in Tasmania with light brush strokes reminiscent of an Impressionist painting.
This metaphor works on two levels as it serves to illustrate how colourful, affectionate, and whimsical this show is and also because that from close up, impressionist paintings are frequently a random assortment of blurry dots that only become a portrait when viewed from afar.
Where Did I Come From? is a show that comes at you from a number of different angles, including embarrassing photo slide shows, musical numbers, and even an Andy Kaufman-esque rendition of the Family Ties theme song. In amongst all of this multimedia, of course, there are laughs. Some of them are light chuckles and some of them are hysterical “hold me down” paroxysms that threaten to tear your pants.
The last section of the show focuses on the difference between Tasmanians and “mainlanders” and includes a hilarious song about a Tasmanian ex-pat who returns to tell everyone about all of the amazing stuff that Melbourne has over Burnie (population: 19,000). This is the highlight of the performance and it is so funny I was still giggling in the stairwell about it after the show.
If I had to be critical (and this is meant to be a critique after all), the show is a bit loose, certainly in the first half at least. As indicated by my fabulous Impressionist metaphor above, there are times where it is difficult to perceive a cohesive purpose behind the show as it skips from topic to topic. However, by his own admission, Josh is the “nice warm bath” of Australian comedy, so perhaps we should expect to be eased into this performance for fear of scalding our collective bottoms?
Whatever the reason, this initial sluggishness is quickly dispelled and by the end Josh has pulled the audience together into a hysterical mass.
For those of you wishing to skip the waffle and cut right to the chase:
Josh is a cordial host and this is a really funny show. You should see it.
Or, to further exploit Josh’s own bathing metaphor:
If Josh Earl’s show really is a bath, then I heartily recommend everyone get into it.
Visit the comedy festival website for bookings and further details