David Quirk: I Don't Wanna Tell Jokes
Live Review

Australia’s David Quirk takes to his modest stage to rousing rock music, proceeds to wave about the dry ice machine and posturing under the red stage lights. Then he feigns mock irritation as the music continues despite his signal to cut it.

The alternation between pomp and humility is a nice mirror of his surroundings; the room is a shoebox within the impressive Assembly Hall. As he points out, as you approach the grand stone steps of the building you think you’re being led to an imposing room, but in fact it’s another typical Fringe tiny sweaty space.

Still Quirk would probably be at his ease in either venue as he appears to be unconcerned by his surroundings – or indeed by the confines and rules of stand up.

His is a laid-back hour. He confesses that he doesn’t do jokes as such, instead preferring to beguile with stories about what he’s seen and heard. The result is that rather than belly laughs, the show elicits continuous but restrained laughter as he tells us about reading Slash’s autobiography, how he prefers a struggle to perfection and his favourite and least favourite words. He’s certainly pleasing company to spend an hour with.

Quirk’s billed as being a dark comic but in fact he’s more of kitten with claws. Sure he doesn’t shy away from the seamier side of life with material on necrophilia, twincest (look it up) and (briefly) suicide but he’s empathic and self-deprecating too which softens the blow for anyone who might be a bit soft bellied. He also has a tendency to qualify what he is about to say before coming out with anything that might seem uncharitable or dodgy.

Elsewhere there’s a little bit of action to break up the stand up, including an accurate impression of a junkie and there’s another deliciously random interlude which I won’t spoil by telling you what it is.

At one point he casually mentions that his mother died a couple of years ago. Without wanting to encourage an on-stage nervous breakdown it would be interesting to hear more about Quirk’s personal life as well as those things that he finds interesting. Maybe that’s next year’s show…