Vagina Decliner by Anthony Menchetti
Midsumma Festival
Dantes Fitzroy, Jan 19 to Feb 3, 2008
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Anthony Menchetti jokes that he prefers to be called a “vagina decliner” rather than simply “gay”.
It certainly supplies a high visibility title for his new stand-up comedy show that incorporates some untried material with some good older jokes.
One of his funniest sight gags is his origami chickens fashioned from bar towels. Every time a new gag falls flat he conjures another uncannily real-looking towelling chook. There are four by the end of the show. A few jokes flop but he recovers with a self-deprecating remark - or a chicken.
Menchetti’s comic delivery and material lack polish and he is certainly not a belly laugh comic but he is cheerful and boyish which makes him engaging. He opens with a full-size cut-out of himself – a pirated copy – then proceeds to mourn the passing of a friend who took up pyramid Tupperware selling. It’s a funny routine presented on film with echoes of White Lady Funerals adverts.
As he achieves his comic goals, he ticks them off on a wall chart: “be original”, “relate to audience”, “flawlessly move from topic to topic”. His use of suspense involves smacking an egg with a golf club – right at me.
He is the only comic to use a fuzzy felt chart as a visual aid to explain dating and ways of escaping the next morning. He has plenty of material about coming out, being sent by his parents to a Christian gay conversion camp, failed romances and crazy gay clubs. His description of Captain Cliché, his disastrous date who wore his white fishnets and cape, is a hoot.
His experiences working in a Call Centre selling unsellable goods to unwilling customers provide some laughs and the lunatics who work there with him also receive some jibes, including the socially inappropriate woman with her sexual innuendo.
Menchetti has a cute song to explain gay relationships to children. It begins with, “Dad’s like dads and mums like mums,” and includes some acerbic commentary on social prejudices.
All that said one of the funniest sight gags in the show is Menchetti’s new haircut. It’s like a confused cockatoo crest. Was his hairdresser having him on?
By Kate Herbert
No comments:
Post a Comment