Nights at the Festival - 22 April
Monday, April 23 2012
Back with the old ball and chain for one final show, Paul Foot. Foot is a comedian whom I enjoyed apparently less than everyone else in Melbourne last year. It’s not that he doesn’t have talent, but the comic’s particular brand of absurd whimsy is one that doesn’t resonate for me, or with me. Still, I was happy to see him again.
The problem with this year’s show is how goddamn long he spends coming on to the stage. I’m aware that it’s intentional, and comments on comedy itself, and is doing everything it sets out to do. But it’s too long and not especially witty. And it shows no regard for people who have paid to see you, to make them crane their necks to look backwards at your gamboling antics for twenty minutes at the start of the show.
Foot did have some excellent moments, whenever he actually told a story not concerned with the fact of the Lower Town Hall around him. In fact, some of his ridiculous moves were works of genius. But if we could have a bit more of that next year, I’d be quite pleased. Claudia O’Doherty bested him big time on the preamble.
They were tearing down the posters from the information booth as I left. And I was wearing a scarf for the first time this year. Now the comedy’s over, winter begins.
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