Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

If a good comedy show stays with you after you’ve watched it, this is an excellent comedy show. Because for days after seeing Conk do precisely what his title promises, snippets of a certain 1980s banger will be entering your head when you least expect it. 

Hearing the same track 15 times in an hour might sound hellish, but Conk – aka Connor Dariol – is a talented clown expert at wringing laughs from the very stupidity of the premise. Often in comedy repetition is funny, then not funny, then doubly funny for the commitment to the bit, and no one is more committed than Conk.

Every rendition is different, either through subtle visual gestures or more extravagantly, doing pushups, say, or singing it sotto voce. Audience members are drafted in to play guitar, or act out the intimate photo-shoot. And we all join in with the lyrics, full-throatedly, when required. 

It doesn’t take long until a sort of collective madness/Stockholm Syndrome sets in, as the audience fully embraces the delirious stupidity of the endeavour. That’s the true genius of the show, to unite us as part of his playfully unhinged cult.

We start by cheering fixed points – such as Conk slapping on his cheesy smile each time the opening chords strike up again, or the appearance of the banana for a ‘na, na, na-na-na-na’ chorus – but we soon get to know every beat of the track, and how he’s changing it with each iteration.

There are other running jokes, too, as he acts out one particular line with a coquettish tease. But why does he always sing the second syllable of one word off-mic? Who knows? This is not the show that’s going to offer any answers to anything.

How crowd dynamics shapes the show shares common ground with the  long-running cult hit A Young Man Dressed As a Gorilla Dressed As An Old Man Sits Rocking in A Rocking Chair For 56 Minutes And Then Leaves. But Conk has a clear plan, too, channelling the energy until it  crescendoes toward a full-on rave.

And he’s generous enough to leave the last laugh to the audience. After the countdown clock on stage ticks down to zero and silence prevails, the shout goes out: ‘One more song!’ 

We have all become converts to the brilliant madness. 

• Edited 16/4/26 to remove the name of the song in question at the request of the artist.

• Conk: Man Sings the Same Song Over and Over Again for an Hour is on at the Westin at 9.40pm tonight, then at ACMI at 9.15pm (8.15pm Sunday) until April 19.

Review date: 15 Apr 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival