What do you do when Tim Minchin has cornered the market in Australasian piano-based comedy? Become Tim Minchin with an inferiority complex.
Sammy J had two shows last year, both fantastic and quirky, and this year’s is inspired by a chap who threatened him when he hit on his wife. The show’s moral is for one not to please everyone, and instead write songs about mermaids and being double-cocked (see shows for details). Fifty-eight kilograms of wuss, is how he describes himself, and Sammy is engaging due to energetic performance, like a coiled spring leaping into action and wit. It’s astonishing to watch and to hear him, breaking fourth wall chatting to family in front row and girl with Will Fuck For Biscuits Tee-shirt. If the world were fair, Sammy would be its biggest star, a little Zebedee of fun for an emaciated generation. As it is, the philosophical nature of the show (“this’ll be the only time all of us will be in this room together”) is matched with the comical (“just turn your back and stand up if you don’t like me but you’ll just get in the way of other spectators…and be looking at them”) to give a great hour of laughter.
Sammy J: Skinny Man, Modern World
Underbelly
21:50, 5-29 Aug
