Reginald D Hunter is cool. He is the epitome of ‘cool’. And I do not mean cool as in ‘hip’ or ‘trendy’, but just so relaxed with what he does that you can’t help but feel relaxed with his show. He called me a “skinny white boy” and I laughed along with everyone else (I was the only one to admit, by putting my hand up, that I had had the crap kicked out of me in my life) . He is a man who needs no introduction; so he didn’t have one. The lights turned down, the audience went quiet and he walked on to the stage and said “hey”. Now THAT is cool.
His opening piece was on the topic of his UK comedian peers who were complaining of their jetlag when travelling to Australia. He went into detail about why they were weak-willed and weak-minded about their situation, and then called them “pussies”. Quite a bit of his show was based on this concept; taking an argument or supposed problem, explaining/solving/resolving said argument or problem, then closing off with a clever punchline. A lot of the time, these punchlines were quite edgy, but I have to say it really didn’t seem like that at the time. It was only about thirty minutes after the show I thought to myself, “Hang on… did he seriously just suggest that rape was once crucial for the furthering of humankind?”. And yes, he did.
He was constantly revealing what seemed like perfectly plausible reasons and genuinely good excuses for unreasonable and inexcusable things: why were the Matrix sequels bad? Cocaine and hoes. Tiger Woods? Victim of society. And so on and so on. Personally, the thing I will take from this show will be to act quite differently whenever someone says “Bear with me”.
No topic was taboo with this show, as the man points out. Race, sex, accents, rape, and Lara Bingle. This has got it all.
And yet he says he isn’t proud of the show yet. It was a preview show, and he says it will get better. If it does, I’m going again.
For full booking details go to the Comedy Festival website