Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

In this thought-provoking show, serial Barry Award nominee Damian Powers uses his personal circumstances to offer first-hand insight into broader cultural questions, while questioning some accepted wisdoms. 

Yet while he commands attention with his content and his presence, the hour never quite takes off comically. It’s frequently funny and always interesting, but massive laughs are in scarcer supply as he puts editorialising and storytelling front and centre.

He kicks off by writing off those who take offence at jokes, suggesting they are seeking a quick, self-satisfying moral fix rather than genuine self-improvement. Yet this isn’t really his fight, more an idea he’s absorbed from the wider comedy community. He may occasionally tweak liberal sensibilities, but he’s no wilful Ricky Gervais-style provocateur.

Instead, he challenges why it’s deemed OK for the liberal left to laugh at bogans – isn’t that punching down? – in a section that starts strong, but ends up regurgitating a few familiar tropes about pretentious hipster cafe culture. However his theories about how Australia would really react if China decided to invade prick at heart of the national myth and suggests a few uncomfortable truths.

His personal story – which is tantalisingly and/or frustratingly unresolved – is that he’s been dating a Muslim girl from Ethiopia. That’s caused issues with their respective parents who are steeped in tradition, either of devout Islam or of being a typically unemotive Aussie bloke, while again highlighting the difference between our cosseted modern First World lives and those who have experienced real hardship and struggle.

This is a fascinating show whose ideas and story will stick with you long after you’ve left the room… even if few of the jokes do. That suggests Power is a couple of rewrites away from something remarkable, if only he can give the gags as much impact as the compelling narrative.

Review date: 8 Apr 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival