Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

Let’s face it, the most sure-fire way to be hailed as an iconic comedy genius is to be dead. 

So Stuart Daulman is bidding to accelerate the process by staging his own funeral, and as authentically as possible. We’re handed an order of service as we file in, past an open casket, to solemn music. Hymns will be sung, and a sombre tone of reflection hangs in the air.

As the earnest Pastor John, Jake Ludowyke perfectly captures the forced awkwardness of the situation, smiling beatifically as he utters benign platitudes and vaguely positive quotations, despite not knowing the deceased. That is where the speakers, all played by Daulman (spoiler alert: he’s not really in the box) come in,  each taking to the podium to pay their respects.

He is fully committed to the concept, giving a strong format to his character sketches, even if the show cannot dodge the inevitable ‘hit-and-miss’ epithet. The service opens with him as Bradly from the choir singing Abide With Me in various keys, none of them the right one. That the hymn is sung in its entirety, and with its real words, demonstrated both the dedication that hallmarks the show, and how irritating it can sometimes be to stick to an idea so doggedly.

Steve Butland, the deceased’s old football coach, gets lots of laughs of recognition before he’s really said anything funny, which is testament to the credibility of Daulman’s creations, although eventually the gags come as he reveals a seething bitterness.

Justin ‘The Bin Man’ Murray was a parody of crass blokey stand-ups of the likes we’ve seen plenty of before – not least Zoe Coombs Marr’s superlative Dave – but the in-jokes landed with this crowd.

The attention to detail that hallmarks the show slipped with the character of Capt Euan James Daulman, Stuart’s brother, who delivered his eulogy in a scruffy white T-shirt, belying the fact he was, I think, supposed to be a well-disciplined military man.But he had a good gag – and another that depended on the stone-faced commitment to another hugely long build-up for a physical payoff that was clearly never going be worth it.

Best mourner of the lot was Stuart’s former housemate, Mr Fish, while another fine bit of comic acting transformed Daulman into his South African grandmother, who couldn’t entirely conceal her racism. 

Death Of A Daulman certainly showcased his talents as a versatile and silly character comedian, as well as his devotion to a gag - to the extent that we shuffle out with a melancholic air, with no big punchline to acknowledge the lie of the past hour.

Review date: 10 Apr 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival