You’re not in the mood for dick jokes or kooky whimsy tonight? How about some Melbourne style, lefty, political humour? What could be more Melbourne than a white, middleclass, left leaning comedian having a go at white middleclass lefties? Why not go and see Mathew Kenneally Flips the Bird at The Finger Pointers? He certainly has a go at a lot of people, especially people having a go at stuff. The lovely thing about Mathew is he is fully aware of this conundrum and gets laughs from it. And the really lovely thing about Mathew is that he is really good at it. He’s learned how to make politics funny, and I think that there are times when you need someone like Matt to make you laugh at all the stupidity.
Impressively his material is so current that he began the show by getting laughs from something that had only occurred two hours earlier, the opposition’s batty Barnaby Joyce had been sacked from his portfolio. None of the audience had known about it so Matt had the pleasure of getting a round of applause for just reading the news. Great way to start the show. Then he was able to get stuck into all his Barnaby Joyce material before moving to the main body of the show seamlessly.
Although all of his show was political, Mathew didn’t just talk about politics and politicians, Mathew also covered a lot of the mainstream issues such as the violence against Indians, and the vindaloo solution, the recent car race riots, the media’s obsession with binge drinking, knife crime and Lara Bingle. I enjoyed his argument against the dangers of violent video games, he said that gamers could never pose a threat to society, because they don’t leave the house! Importantly Mathew was able to bring all these issues and ideas together with an amusing framework stemming from a friend’s argument about a brown couch. Or was it grey?
Going out to see live comedy is a shared experience and this show gives you that frisson of excitement that you are connecting to the zeitgeist. At the same time Mathew Kenneally provides a very relaxed, friendly atmosphere to share his anger at the world with us. This is not a loud, shouty, political rally, and more importantly, Matt never forgets that it is a comedy show and he keeps the laughs coming. Rod Quantock would be proud.
Mathew Kenneally Flips the Bird at The Finger Pointers runs until April 18th. Visit the comedy festival website