Original Review:

The show – as odd, culty and surreal as the title suggests – seems life seven to ten minutes of inspired writing, thinly spread over 45. When he’s good, Hunter is very good, but there’s a lot of flailing in between.

His flat delivery does him few favours, either. He’s slow and quiet to the point of soporific, so when the jokes don’t come up to par, there’s very little to hold the attention. He tells off the audience for not laughing: ‘What are some of you doing here?’ he ponders a couple of times when he doesn’t get the reaction he seeks, as if the problem lies with us, not him.

The difficulty is that there’s a fine line between inventiveness and contrivance – and the strength of the punchline is the only deciding factor. Get it right, and you’re an imaginative, original thinker. Get it wrong and you’re an idiot blethering on about meaningless nonsense.

There are some gags here that are as smart and brilliant as they are quirky – such as his idea of when to hold a surprise party or his failure to grasp the context of negative numbers. A lot more of the material, you simply nod sagely at and think ‘nice’, but barely crack more than a satisfied grin; and more still you think is just odd for odd’s sake.

The addition of a gently strummed guitar below quirky gags to give them a touch of perceived class is starting to become tired, too. I’ve seen it about four times in the past month, and it does nothing to make the jokes any funnier. On the other hand, Hunter does use some gimmicks to good advantage. He makes good use of his sidekick, Jason Chong, and pulls off a neat gag with his taped introduction.

As a work-in-progress, this would be promising, just on the strength of half a dozen stand-out jokes, but as a finished article – 12 months on from its debut at last year’s Adelaide Fringe – it’s too patchy to be recommended.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett