THEATRE BY FRANK McKONE
Show Us Your Roots. "The biggest line up of Australia's Multicultural Comedians ever assembled in one place at one time", produced by Laing Special Events in association with the National Multicultural Festival. Llewellyn Hall, Friday February 14.
13 comedians in one night might not seem to augur well, but all except one stood up to my expectations. And really there were 14, because the compere, Peter Rowsthorn, was a quality comedian in his own right. He set the standard of good relations with the audience from the beginning, with humour in mime especially, when the dreaded echo of Llewellyn Hall might have turned the evening sour.
The least successful was Bev Killick of English and Scots origins. Though her vocal bagpipes were well done, too much of her act consisted of imitations (of Tina Turner and AC/DC doing advertising jingles) which could not compare with the traditional storytelling stand-up acts of the others.
What fascinated me was the common thread of irony, done in the Australian laconic manner (itself the butt of many of the jokes), which linked performers from such diverse backgrounds: Jilkamu (Indigenous Australian), Joe June (China), Desh (India, South Africa), Gabriel Rossi (Italy), Jackie Loeb (Germany, Austria), Dave Callan (Ireland), Tahir Bilgic (Turkey), George Smilovici (Cuba, Romania), Chris Wainhouse (New Zealand), Tommy Dean (USA), Hung Lee (Vietnam) and Anthony Mir (Lebanon).
The 3 hour program was too full of laughs for me to give a complete picture. Some highlights were a very brave Jackie Loeb in an underwear routine which began from a visit to the Miss America swimsuit competition, a terrific didgeridoo performance representing hitchhiking in a truck by Jilkamu, and Dave Callan's image of Irish people - trying to be sophisticated - drinking potato daquiris.
Hung Lee's probably true story of his mother, unable to understand English, deciding to make sandwiches for his school lunch filled with corn flakes and soy sauce dressing, showed the light side of cultural confusion. But it was the American Tommy Dean's probably fictional story of the September 11 highjackers secretly laughing at the air hostess demonstrating the safety features of their aircraft which provided the blackest humour of the night.
The hall was full for this one-night stand-up, which I think deserves to become a National Multicultural Festival tradition.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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