Australian comedy mainstay Sammy J – the musical comedian perhaps best known for his double act with the puppet Randy Feltface – first performed the masterful Hero Complex down under in 2017, and it might be the most accomplished show that Chortle ever gave three-and-a-half stars to.
Belatedly making its UK debut at the Fringe, the hour is – in more than one way – about Sammy’s hero. And it’s also extremely complex. Do you see what he did there?
You’ll be noticing that sensation a lot throughout this hour. The story starts in Melbourne in the 1990s, where Sammy is a nerdy, overachieving theatre kid inexplicably obsessed with 1930s pulp serial hero The Phantom, widely recognised as the world’s first costumed hero.
Personally I know way too much about old comic books and even I was surprised to learn there was a Phantom Official Fan Club Australia in Victoria in 1991. It’s through this obsession that he first encounters his school’s teenage gardener Duncan, and forms a friendship that will echo profoundly throughout his life, and which will form the basis for this show.
Sammy’s own great superpower as a comedian is how he structures his work, particularly his ability to manufacture and leverage callbacks. As a storyteller he’s able to draw connections between coincidental events in his life, weaving together events that seem insignificant at first, but in his hands eventually start to resemble a mind-melting tapestry of serendipity.
For the first half of this show, as you hear disconnected titbits about Sammy’s school days, the novels of Lee Child, the model UN and of course The Phantom, you’ll probably wonder where it’s all going. Then when the second half hits, you’ll realise the whole thing has been domino-setting, and now it’s time to watch the palace tumble, as Sammy knocks out twist after twist until you frankly start feeling a little inured to the whole thing.
That feeling of everything coming together, of watching a meticulously clever mind in action, is really the whole point of the show, and it works like gangbusters. Sure, he lays it on a little thick, or actually incredibly thick, but much better to feel overstuffed with surprises than low on ideas. You’d have to be mad not to be satisfied, even if you don’t find it particularly funny.
And while his being funny is not exactly the most pressing concern in a show like this – it works as long as it’s amusing, which it definitely is – it’s worth noting that the actual comedy is not going to be for everyone.
Sammy still retains a lot of his theatre kid roots even in his mid-40s; his comedic persona is earnest, dorky, and unmistakably seeking something, casting his eyes hopefully around the room in search of enchantment.
Hero Complex is almost ten years old now, but honestly feels older still, a dispatch from a blessedly less edgy era. As outdated as it sometimes feels, its exuberant innocence and gentle laughs (and of course its rampant plot twists) are exactly the reason why people have fallen in love with it.
