Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

‘2023 was a great year for Damien Power,’ trills the blurb for his latest solo show, boasting several career successes. Well, someone should tell the comedian himself because, boy, is he in an angry place – and in more than one sense.

He’s living in the basement of his dad’s house – an angry place literally, given how Power Sr is a cauldron of reactionary Boomer energy, reacting furiously to any suggestion of change. 

And he’s in an angry place mentally, feeling overtaken by his less talented peers – how can it be right that he’s living like this when Tommy Little is a millionaire? – and threatened by the TikTokers nipping at his heels, cosplaying stand-up to vast audiences of followers.

Unlike those online upstarts, Power does actually know how to do comedy inside-out, thanks to 18 years of hard-won experience. In Not So Funny Now Is it? he’s balled that anger into an uncompromisingly fierce and funny hour.

He’s got relevant things to say on hot-button topics such as the fetishisation of victimhood, the toxicity of modern discourse and the tribalism that makes everything such a battle. Or even just the bizarre mix of topics that obsess Joe Rogan’s podcast listeners.

To use a broad generalisation – which he’s not entirely shy about himself – Power is well-placed between a pigheadedly conservative older generation and a self-centred younger one. A skit about how old men and old women react differently to social progress is a bit reductive and self-indulgent, even if he pulls himself up on both charges.

The comic is also partway between being proudly non-PC and achingly woke. As a former builder, he understands the language of casual homophobia and misogyny, even though he doesn’t speak it himself. But he will still sometimes do an audacious dance around the line of dubious taste, whether it’s gags about 9/11 or skanky meth-heads and the surprising thing they have in common with Margot Robbie.

For a ‘tell it like it is’ kinda guy, Power also has no time for sham notions of romance. Real life is not like a Ryan Gosling film and, yes, he is single. If he’s anything like this off-stage, a date might consider him ‘a bit much’. For stand-up, however, his direct approach is rocket fuel.

Not So Funny Now Is it? is a intense ride, and sometimes Power gets more swept up in passion than laughs. But never for long, in this daring, furious state-of-the-world address

What can I say? He’s no Tommy Little.

Thank God.

Review date: 12 Apr 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival