MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY
FESTIVAL
Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins St, Melbourne, until
April 22, 2018
Stars: ***1/2
International act (UK)
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Review also published in Herald Sun Arts online on Thurs April 5, 2018. KH
Each generation finds ways to distract itself from the
politics and other horrors of its era, and, in Bread and Circuses, Stephen K
Amos gets comedy mileage by contrasting his childhood distractions with those
of the tech-savvy millennials.
The Ancient Romans distracted disgruntled citizens
with food (bread) and gladiatorial fight clubs (circuses), and Amos's own
childhood diversions included board games such as Cluedo, whereas young people
today immerse themselves in iPhones, Facebook, Instagram and Reality TV.
To prove his point, a young woman seated in front of
this reviewer kept scanning her Facebook feed then played a video of another
idiot cooking muffins! Really! Bring back the gladiators, I say!
Amos lounges casually, leaning on his microphone stand
and mercilessly teasing audience members who call out inanities, or take four
seconds too long to get at a joke. He gets laughs out of hassling the crowd for
messing up his ‘rhythm’.
He has a mischievous grin as he rambles comfortably
from topic to topic: Donald Trump, traffic jams, redheads, guinea pigs, Bob
Katter, Barnaby Joyce, and Amos’s own dad's inability to wrangle technology.
Hollywood and Harvey Weinstein get a big serve of
criticism, and Amos also provides an interesting take on the superhero movie,
Black Panther, and on other race-related issues.
Amos's comedy is intelligent but sometimes scathing
and, even when the audience response is not what he expects or desires, he
laughs at himself and the crowd, then gets back into the rhythm again.
By Kate Herbert
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