Show Us Your Roots 3 Stand-up comedy presented by A List Entertainment. National Multicultural Festival at Canberra Theatre, Friday February 18.
New Zealander Cal Wilson provided me with a mental image of push down, twist and squelch when she described the object on top of Parliament House as a giant potato masher. No wonder she went on to say that NZ PM Helen Clarke is "more of a man than yours is." Anti-Howard political comment was a common theme from at least half of the comedians, receiving laughter and often applause from a very full Canberra Theatre.
The image provided by part-Russian Steve Abbott, aka Sandman but this night playing host, was anything but mental. Stripping off his luminescent pink suit jacket, he described his paunch as the place where his backside had gone to get a better view. We got a better view too when, demonstrating first the "high-pants" walk, then rolling up his shirt for the "low-pants" walk, his paunch received mixed laughter and horror. Abbott is a great comedian, almost to the point of overshadowing the acts he introduced.
Big Brother Little Brother had us singing We Are Australian in the worst nasal accent. Tania Losanno told what seemed to be a true story of how she won beauty pageant sashes at the Italian Club in Forrest. Fijian-Indian Umit Bali's rapid-fire talk was almost beyond my comprehension, but younger ears picked up the nuances.
Steve Bastoni ("Which TV show are you off?" "All of them!") described McLeod's Daughters ironically as an accurate representation of rural Australia (where are the Italians?) and more viciously as a rural tampon commercial.
Hung Le, from 'Nam (Syd'nam) proposed a pornographic kung fu movie called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Salami. African-American-Australian Daria demonstrated how loud Americans are, which is why they like Steve Irwin and not David Attenborough. Londoner Terry North seemed as non-Aussie ethnic as anyone else, while very-much Aussie but originally American Greg Fleet was brilliant for the last 15 minutes. You will never fly again after his safety equipment run-down. And he actually did borrow cash from audience member Andrew because he'd lost his credit card - I saw them out the back after the show.
A great night out.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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