From France via London, Marcel Lucont has graced Melbourne with the pleasure of his company. In this hour, Marcel talked at length about his favorite topic (Marcel Lucont), recited poetry, sang songs and imparted plenty of worldly advice.
From the start of the show the character was clearly defined and every French cliché in the book was employed to make Marcel a hyper stereotype. His constant talking himself up and disgust at his surroundings were fodder for plenty of jokes. Beneath the Francophile chest beating there lied some interesting social commentary which provided plenty of laughs other than the expected ‘giggling at the silly Frenchman’.
With a show of this type you would expect plenty of material based on mistranslation but he restricted it to French to English grammar gaffs and French words that sound vaguely dirty in English (clearly demonstrated by his character’s name). Instead of wasting too much time with wordplay he fleshed out this ruffian in enough detail and background so that we could instantly relate to him and allow him to manipulate us easily.
The disdain Marcel displayed to the audience was milked for every laugh. He had a great subtle method of gently insulting the audience while simultaneously making himself the butt of the joke, achieved through some clever call backs and his commitment to the stereotype. It certainly helped that having the audience in on the joke ensured that there was little chance of offense being taken personally, even when he engaged in some banter with the masses. The somewhat late time slot of the show ensured that many sensitive souls were unlikely to be there to witness his rather sexist comments and liberal use of the C Word, even though they were clearly expressed with a tongue firmly planted in cheek.
A lackey playing a piano accordion accompanied Marcel’s singing of a couple songs. The songs themselves were a mixed bag in terms of humour, the first containing plenty of hilarious ideas while the closer was rather straight and merely reinforcemed his attitude rather than adding laughs. His laid back crooning style and the cramming of as many words per line kept up the chuckles up regardless. A nice touch of peripheral appeal was provided by this offsider who remained on stage throughout the show looking bored, drinking wine and shuffling a deck of dirty cards.
In keeping with his lassaire faire persona, his delivery was restrained and with the accent laid on thickly it required some degree of concentration to catch every nuance in his material. The fact that the very loud and shouty ‘Metrosketchuals’ were performing on the other side of the wall demonstrated his professionalism and talent in holding our attention throughout the show. He was able to work in plenty of humourous asides and some coincidentally apt applause from the other venue was weaved into the script.
This show was a brilliantly crafted character piece that had the audience laughing riotously throughout. Vive le Marcel!
For booking details visit the Comedy Festival website