Review by Steve Bennett

To the three-quarters-full room, he served up 80 minutes of mostly lukewarm observations about the broadest of topics, mentioning the first vaguely amusing thing he thought of about each of them, without ever threatening to take his comments into unexpected directions. What’s the deal with that Facebook, eh, with all that poking? Hasn’t P Diddy got a silly name? Doesn’t George Bush say the stupidest things? Yes, yes, we know… There’s no comic take on this, really, just a reaffirmation of things even the dimmest observer probably figured out for themselves.

There’s a telling story later in the show, where he talks about jokingly mentioning in a radio interview driving along ‘with a dead prostitute in the back seat’. It’s a throwaway line, clearly not in the least bit credible and at the less offensive end of what you might hear at any comedy club, but Rove landed a bucketful of grief for it. This is not the sort of comment Australia expects from the cheery chappy from off the telly.

But the suspicion is the supposed controversy this fairly innocuous comment spawned has left Rove so terrified of the consequences of going anywhere near the edge, that he stays on the safest ground possible. But then, he was never really that sort of comic, even before the lure of TV grabbed him…

He limply mocks political correctness, complains ineffectively about the made-up gossip about him in the tabloids and does a bit about bringing up your children not to trust strangers, then telling them to be nice to the bearded man who breaks into your bedroom every Christmas Eve, which Jasper Carrott was doing 25 years ago. He’s surely not stolen the segment – but it’s an indication of how tired Rove’s thinking is, that he can’t come up with anything new.

At his worst, he’s almost a parody of bad observational comedy: ‘What’s the deal with fruitbread – it’s bread… but with fruit!’ Jerry Seinfeld needn’t be too worried about this antipodean threat.

Plus points? Well, Rove effectively projects a nice-guy image, and certainly has a relaxed delivery. He can pull out silliness, in measured doses, too, with his immature sing-song mocking of some of his targets enjoyably over-the-top; even if the phoney anger elsewhere is entirely unbelievable. No one really gets that furious over celebrity rapper’s names – and he’s not even mocking his disproportionate reaction.

Away from the threadbare hand-me-down observations, he can spin an engaging yarn. He has an enjoyable segment about watching birds crash in his back yard, for example, and his description of old man’s testicles elicts as many laughs as squirms.

Tellingly, the best segment of the show wasn’t even in the original script. The previous night, while describing those birds, he drew blood as he bashed his head on the microphone. The description of that accident 24 hours earlier, and especially the audience reaction to it, provided a witty, spontaneous, animated routine.

He’s clearly a hell of a lot better at making light of what’s going on around him than he is at well-written, well-crafted, insightful comedy. He has all the skills a good chat-show host needs, but only a few that a good comic does – so maybe he shouldn’t quit that day job just yet.

Reviewed by Steve Bennett

Review date: 1 Jan 2008
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett