Rod Quantock Eats Himself
Note: This review is from 2009
Review by Steve Bennett
His devoted fans might be concerned that veteran comedic Leftie Rod Quantock might struggle to stoke the fire in his belly, now his twin nemeses of George Bush and John Howard have left the picture. But fear not, Quantock can now concentrate on the bigger picture: and what a miserable one it is.Climate change is on the agenda now, in a show that makes An Inconvenient Truth look like the feelgood movie of the decade. ‘I won’t be happy unless you all leave here paralytic with fear,’ he vows.
It’s a depressing picture all right: irreversible rises in temperature that will bring mankind to the brink of annihilation; ever-larger swathes of the planet becoming uninhabitable and unable to support the crops and water the spiralling population needs; inevitable war, famine and destruction.
This is a message that stops only a slither short of human extinction, yet offers no slither of hope or hint of a solution. We’re all screwed, and there’s really nothing any of us can do about it – no, not even low-energy lightbulbs and reusable supermarket bags.
It’s testament to Quantock’s skill and experience that he can make such an unremittingly bleak outlook funny in the slightest. Elsewhere in the festival, Chortle has seen him make a 15-minute story about a passion fruit sponge hilarious, so with the big issues as fodder, there are still laughs to be had.
With the demeanour of a passionate and benevolent schoolteacher, and performing in front of a giant blackboard on which he scribbles the routes to armageddon, this is as much Royal Institution Christmas lecture as it is stand-up show.
He often drags people up on stage to illustrate a point like semi-reluctant schoolchildren. While these demonstrations are rarely that funny or enlightening, it adds to the playful spirit. And Quanock, more than most comedians, is all about spirit, which is what his established audience get swept along.
Some of his facts might be of a Wikipedia level of accuracy, and he jokingly admits his percentages aren’t exactly scientifically rigorous, but that doesn’t detract from the message of destruction. His fans want to know they’re right to worry about an overheating overpopulated planet, and this show will rightly reinforce that.
Heralding unavoidable doom, Quantock is like one of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse - but with a pantomime horse as his steed, just for a morsel of comic relief. See him before the world is a fiery pit of hell.
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Melbourne, April 2009
Review date: 1 Jan 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
