Review by Steve Bennett

But it’s a hard path to follow, and he currently tries more than he succeeds, making this a difficult show to recommend wholeheartedly, no matter how much you might want to applaud his efforts.

Defying conventional wisdom, he purposefully establishes a discomforting mood, throwing out any idea of structure, making his set-ups wilfully long-winded and sometimes eschewing comedy completely to wander down some philosophical blind alley. With an offbeat approach like that, he’s unlikely to ever become a crowd favourite, but he’s clearly aiming to be the connoisseurs’ choice.

While his attitude is unusual, it’s not unique, with Stewart Lee being an apparenty influence - though Quirk later told me he had only recently become aware of Lee's woek. But his riff on T-shirts bearing the slogan: ‘Beer is the answer… I don’t remember the question’ is a bit too close to Lee’s classic ‘Jesus is the answer’ routine for comfort, though mercifully much shorter.

Despite this unfortunate resonance, Quirk is no carbon copy, largely pursuing his own peculiar brand of pedantic, overanalytical stand-up, and revelling in the awkward mood he often creates.

That said, there are jokes in here, and sometimes mighty fine ones at that, which often come as a release after a dark, ponderous thought process has led the audience into what looks like a comedic cul-de-sac. He’s the sort of comic who can use an uncomfortably heavyweight discussion about the precise definition of rape as a set-up, and the death of his mother as a punchline – and both be successful.

But Quirk can’t get over the artifice of stand-up, and continually draws reference to it. The consequence is that the show never builds up any momentum, as he is forever puncturing the mood he builds up. That’s the Achilles heel of the approach, as the audience can’t fully immerse themselves in his often disquieting world.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Melbourne, April 2009

Review date: 1 Jan 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett