Some clarification here. Comedy On The Edge is a Sydney comedy room, and these are two comedian envoys from that room. Being the poor researcher I am, I didn’t know this ‘til writing the review. Because, folks, these comedians were noticeably not-edgy. I was expecting edge. Do you know what it’s like waiting to be offended and it never comes?
Mark, for starters, was a big ball of fun and audience interaction (asking us about the Penguin Island penguins and the name of processed meat (Balony, Fritz, Devon….ours is Paloney). He was jovial, topical, unobtrusive (‘if I offend, there’s drinks at the end’), he was… well, he seemed to be the MC to other performer. Just the one. This was an odd show indeed. Edgy, perhaps? ‘Jason Akermanis was worried about others seeing his cock. We see a cock alright’
The second and final performer on the bill was Justin. He was just as nice, but seemed a naturally nervous performer. It didn’t matter though, his stuff was strong and layered, and his segues were textbook: pointing out how small the audience was (I think it was 7, which made their abilty to gain laughs even more impressive) brought him round to when he played an audience of one (‘or audient, since audience is plural’), to when his one crowd member became rambling at him (‘it was like being trapped at a bad comedy gig, and it was my gig’). He had two rather outstanding jokes (about the sequel to Jesus and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse) weaved within a story about comedy busking (giving the wrong impression), and a short story about a reviewer that had me howling (hands down single biggest belly laugh of the entire festival, it was like the joke was written especially for me and given the small crowd perhaps it was). And of course he tricked us by forcing the audience to look at his balls through his jeans. So maybe they were on edge after all….
If I’m ever Sydney way I’m checking this place out, at least (but not only) to hopefully hear that reviewer story again.