Review by Steve Bennett

Birdmann, it’s quickly obvious, is not your run-of-the-mill comedian, but instead a absurdist performance artist who also has the capacity to be very funny.

He was one of the surprise finds of the 2005 Melbourne festival, performing a stylish late-night cabaret in a sultry, dimly-lit bar which provided the ideal setting for his bizarre, slow-burning pieces. He was similarly wonderful in the Gilded Balloon’ early-hours jazz-infused Shuffle Club at last year’s Edinburgh festival.

This year’s venue, a straightforward fringe space converted from a council chamber in the endearingly shabby Trades Hall, suits him less well, as does the earlier 8.45pm timeslot. It sets the expectations for a regular theatrical experience, which is the one thing Birdmann most blatantly does not provide.

His show is full of stupid sideshow stunts: he’ll pour tea through his nose one minute, throw kitchen implements at a target the next and finally perform a painful party trick with beer bottles and the power of suction. You genuinely won’t see much like this elsewhere, which means his act makes for indelible memories, even if its inevitably fragmented nature makes it difficult for him to build up a comic momentum.

Beyond the visual, Birdmann exploits little quirks in the language and in audience expectations to find surreal humour, which he mines with a fair amount of success.

But many of the funniest moments are leftovers from last year’s show – and while it’s genuinely good to see them again, it also underlines the impression that Birdmann’s forte is cooking up imaginative set pieces rather than forming a full show.

In his natural variety environment, he’s a clear stand-out, his distinctive look and style only enhancing the mood of inspired weirdness. That’s present in Birdmannifesto, too, even if it lacks the sense of occasion that elevates his cabaret appearances into something special is somehow missing.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
May 2006

Review date: 1 Jan 2006
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett