Quite early in this years Melbourne Comedy Festival the word came down ‘Make sure you see the Bedroom Philosopher’s Show this year Lisa.’ This from the person who once recommended the then unknown Tim Minchin to me. Sadly by the time I had a free space in my schedule, Justin Hazelwood had broken his humerus bone and I sadly missed out. There was a lot of missing out, not only for the audiences, but Justin himself who was unable to get the benefit of sold out shows from the growing word of mouth and finally the Directors Choice Award bestowed upon him for this show. Yep, that’s the one they created for Tim Minchin.
Since immigrating from Tasmania five years ago, Justin has been making a name for himself around Melbourne as The Bedroom Philosopher, one of our top up and coming musical comedian / comedy musicians. Brilliantly talented, Justin’s Song’s from the 86 Tram is a fabulous way to showcase his many comedic talents. It is also one of the best musical comedy shows I’ve seen in an awfully long time. It’s a show with a storyline and that line is the tramline of the number 86 tram that starts in Bundoora near Latrobe University (and in the past several mental institutions) winding it’s way south through working class and hip, drug addict riddled, inner-city suburbs, through the heart of the CBD and ending up at our newest inner-city, shiny suburb of Docklands. Maybe it takes an outsider from over the strait to cast a fresh and discerning eye on something we might take for granted and indeed often find unpleasant and frustrating. It’s a long tram trip, I know every street of it, I rode it when I lived in College at Latrobe University, later living in Clifton Hill and I now use it every day to and from my workplace in Bourke St.
Justin casts himself as our friendly, chatty, tram driver, speaking through a deliberately distorting microphone in between the songs sung by his 16 vividly drawn tram commuters that share our journey. My favourite characters included a recent immigrant (Preston) who watched the film ‘Australia’ to find out about his new home but found ‘The Castle’ a lot more illuminating, a frustrated working class father and his sweet story telling son (Thornbury), a wanky poseur muso bragging on his mobile (Northcote), the inevitable shouty heroin addict father with invisible family in tow (Smith St Collingwood) and the standout, a sexed up, sleazy ticket inspector hilariously intimidating a lady in the front row. I also enjoyed “I work in New Media”(Docklands) which has a particularly catchy tune as well as natty lyrics that garnered some whooping from a handful of audience members that may just work in new media. What ever that is. To change the mood throughout, there were some gentler more poignant moments in the show such as empty nester Gwen (Bundoora) wondering if her kids need her anymore, an old duffer wistfully recalling “In My Day” (CBD), and someone inevitably nodding off to sleep.
If I had one problem with the show, it was that the sound was not always clear and I missed out on a lot of the undoubtedly clever lyrics in some of the songs. Justin is currently in the studios recording these songs and I look forward to hearing the resulting CD. It’s going to be impossible for the album to capture all of the fun stuff going on in this show, a lot of it is quite visual, so while you can hop on board and see this show. It is a sheer joy from start to end. Ding ding!
For more info and booking details go to the Melbourne Fringe Festival website