Melbourne Comedy Festival
Victoria Hotel, March 28 to 20, 2003
Victoria Hotel, March 28 to 20, 2003
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
As far as this
reviewer is concerned, attendance is compulsory at Rod Quantock shows. Of course,
this smacks of conscription and Quantock is not in favour of conscription of
any kind.
Nor is he in favour
of the War. He makes no bones about it. The Coalition of the Willing is the
Axis of Stupidity in his book. There are no sacred
cows for Quantock - particularly on the political Right of our world stage. He derides George Bush and Tony Blair
but saves his vitriol for John Howard.
Quantock is well versed
in all the information of war that pours out of our televisions and radios. He sacrifices sleep for us in order to
be informed. All the interesting stuff happens at 3am, he quips.
This show has huge
belly laughs but it is often so close to the truth of the mad events in our
world at present that we laugh with an ache in our bellies. Quantock's target
used to be Jeff Kennett and his jobs for the boys in Victoria. His attitude to
Bush and Howard makes Kennett look like a pussy cat.
The Left does not
get off unscathed. Simon Crean gets a pasting too. Other punching bags
are our own Herald-Sun. he
surrounds the Stage with banner headlines from all the newspapers.
He highlights the
fact that the Herald-Sun had the Flower Show and the Fashion and Food shows on
the front page a week or so into the invasion. Andrew Bolt,
political writer, Quantock says, is sent to give him ulcers. He is his own
weapon of Rod's mass destruction.
His style is still
conversational and always shambolic. He blames George
Bush for any confusion. He just wouldn't call Rod back in time for the Comedy Festival
to tell him whether the war was going ahead.
What is always
fascinating and compelling in a Quantock show is how much he knows about world politics
and how he draws together disconnected threads to form an absurd picture of the
chaos we face.
He keeps his praise
for some lesser known public figures: Hans Blick that cuddly UN weapons inspector and the French Defence
Minister who is smart and chic.
By Kate Herbert
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