David Quirk: The Day I Ate Wombat
Live Review

David Quirk is one of those comedians you can see develop festival by festival; each year returning with a show slightly different in approach than the one before.

The Day I Ate Wombat is probably his most accessible project yet; superficially a straightforward storytelling show about a night his teenage self spent with his bogan acquaintances in a rundown country shack, where a creepy bushman served him a stew of green wombat meat over a campfire – and it wasn’t as gooey, brewy, yummy or chewy as children’s literature might have you believe.

Quirk is an evocative storyteller, mixing whimsy with a darker edge that adds a sinister air to the isolated location, but if that’s all there was to this hour, it would be a flimsy offering. He also offers a intelligently offbeat commentary to it all; his ponderous, sometimes repetitive, musings enhancing the tale, or offering new angles. I’ve drawn parallels between his delivery style and Stewart Lee before, and although some of his techniques mean those comparisons won’t completely go away, he is edging into his own territory.

There’s an idea that the monologue is about how young blokes behave together, drinking and dacking mainly, and how ‘fitting in’ is so crucial to a teenager. However, although the core tale is engrossing, some of the subsidiary ones are funnier: such as the subtle pranks he plays to relieve his boredom while working in retail; the hilarious comparison of open relationships with working on oil rigs; and a literal shaggy-dog story that may or may not be an urban myth.

Quirk has the subdued confidence to ensure we hang on his every word, and delivers his material as if it’s of the utmost seriousness. Occasionally his mask slips, though, and we get a burst of high-impact energy or a cheeky virtual wink to remind us this is comedy, not just storytelling.

The mix of the two isn’t perfect, but when it works, it works excellently; and Quirk is never less than absorbingly watchable. The man is doing fine, fascinating work in the alchemy lab of his comedy career – and this distinctive, slightly eccentric, offering is an entertaining fruit of his labours.

Reviewed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, April 2011