Censored – What the Fuck Show
At 1-23 April 2022 at Club Voltaire Nth Melbourne
Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF)
Reviewer: Kate Herbert This review of recorded live performance on 1 April
Stars: ***
This review published only on this blog. KH
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| L-R: Mick Moore, JNewtz, Milton White- The Putin Song- pic by Michael Reynolds |
If your pet hates include Woke culture, Cancel culture, the rise of choose-your-own gender pronouns and other sacred cows, then the WTF Show?! Censored may be just your bag.
The show comprises a program of three solo comedians, Milton White, JNewtz and Mick Moore, followed by the same trio doing a series of live and recorded comic sketches, some of which are funnier than others.
After some video intro by a Kermit the Frog lookalike, Mick Moore kicks off the stand-up with a bunch of material about Covid vaccines, Covidiot deniers and Facebook not being a research site. He then has a jab (forgive the pun) at ‘white people’.
He’s chatty, daggy, critical of everyone but not very offensive so don’t expect abuse or highly censored content. For some unknown reason, he intermittently whinnies like a puzzled horse.
Next is JNewtz sporting a blue and black quiff and tartan pants. He riffs on politicians and their predictability, the naming of virus variants, persistent, outdoor face mask wearers (Me!), and gets plenty of sexual innuendo out of double jabs and boosters.
Putin, Trump and Dan Andrews get a slapping, as well as phone scammers and those pesky and confusing gender pronouns. The last got a few cheers.
His routine has content that may offend some, including some (intentional) casual racism about a Tinder date that leads into material about ‘the Chinese pandemic’.
Milton White – who is, ironically, a person of colour – bounds energetically onto stage wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘Cancel Cancel Culture’. Yes and yes!
He begins confidently with short, snappy gags, including a pretty funny one about changing his name on Facebook. No spoilers, but I’d love to tell you the gag! His character parodies are fast and funny and he delivers more wit and parody about phone scams and mobile companies.
He shifts gears into innuendo about aeroplanes and then delivers some unseemly but often funny gags about sex with a black guy. Catholics, priests and old, privileged, white men (Prince Andrew) get a bit of a smacking, too.
Then follows a rather uneven collection of sketches by all three performers, the smartest of which is about Woke, ethically sourced, environmentally friendly farming that produces ‘Woke Coke’. Funny!
Some of the sketches need a savage edit and, if you’re going to do songs, write some really funny lyrics, use some harmonies, hit the note cleanly or else make a feature of the bad singing.
This trio has potential, but their material is uneven, they feels loose and their confidence wavers. They need an editor and probably a director to strengthen their material and tighten their performance style and comic timing.
by Kate Herbert
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