After a few years of reviewing, one thing I have discovered is that it can be a great rejuvenator, in the middle of festival, to go and see a kids show. This job can get exhausting and wearing, a real case of ‘too much of a good thing’, but when you go to a show designed for children it dislocates your experience of comedy and posits it just slightly out the sphere of your usual experience.
Although not a kids show, Unspeakable 2008 has this quality of difference in droves. The brainchild of Erin Davidson, this show is designed to cater for both deaf and hearing punters. Even before the show starts you can feel the difference in the room, as the almost audible buzz of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) floats around the venue, passing over the heads of audience members, carrying conversations across the length of the auditorium at Gasworks.
The show was started in great style by MC “Adam Hills”:comic who appeared onstage with his regular interpreter Nic Maher. Adam went through some of the logistics of working with a sign interpreter and explained how the presence of a sign interpreter could triplicate the laughs, which indeed it seemed to do.
This very strong opening led into the best of the three featured acts, “Sam Wills”:comic, aka “The Boy With Tape on His Face”:http://www.thegroggysquirrel.com/articles/2008/03/20/2008-melbourne-comedy-festival-reviews/sam-wills—-the-boy-with-tape-on-his-face/ who gave another sterling performance of his modern day, vaudevillian absurdity. Once again his audience interaction skills shone through and audience participation became a major aspect of his performance.
The audience participation aspect was also true of the second featured act, Doctor Decibel (otherwise known as Asphyxia). A deaf performer, Doctor Decibel, although keeping with the tone of the night did not live up to the heights set by Messrs. Hills and Wills. In fairness she is billed as a deaf circus performer rather than a comedian and much of the audience reaction for her piece came from her magic rather than her jokes. That said there were still pleasing bits, and, quite frankly, I don’t think that there are many performers who would like to follow Adam and then Sam in this context, but the energy of the night did decrease a little here.
Last up were “Sammy J”:comic and Heath McIvor with a new piece they’d created specifically for this show. Drawing from some of the puppetry featured in “Sammy J in The Forest of Dreams”:http://www.thegroggysquirrel.com/articles/2008/03/20/2008-melbourne-comedy-festival-reviews/sammy-j-in-the-forest-of-dreams/ Sammy and Heath served up a suite of silent skits, eliciting reactions from the audience that varied from merriment to hilarity.
This was an unusual and fascinating show with some of the funniest spans I’ve seen at this festival. I would like to reiterate Adam Hills’ closing wish, that next year we will get to see “Unspeakable 2009”.
Visit the comedy festival website for further details