Review | Kieran Eaton
What makes a successful comedy night? Big atmosphere and lots of laughter, which is what this show at The Rechabite delivers in huge quantities. The venue has an old, eerie feel to it with an odd industrial style that is ironic given the location is in the heart of Northbridge. In direct juxtaposition, the format of the night is predicably standard. There is an affable MC who does some crowd work and bit of material, then one another the MC will introduce an act to do about ten minutes of stand-up comedy. If you want to go to this night on multiple times, you can because they will mix up the line-up. Crushers pride themselves on having only the best acts in town and so this night we were treated with the masterful MC Ben Darsow, the cool-cat Rory Lowe, the lawyer larrikin Corey White, the loud and proud Janelle Koenig, and the say it how it is Amos Gill.
As a master of ceremonies, Darsow knows how not to make the show about him. He has an enthusiastic energy that warms even the biggest cynics and his banter is cheeky but friendly to keep the crowd on side. When Lowe is brought on, there is a presence on stage that grabs the attention of the audience and gives it a good shake. His main shtick was that he wanted to be cool like rappers but drew attention to how comedians never are.
Then a Ben Cousins look-a-like in White, came on and self-claims to be, “The second-best comedian out of Bassendean,” – and we all know the first (Rolf Harris). White is a clever joke writer with an amusing dry style in making uncomfortable ideas hilarious.
As Koenig has been on TV and radio, she knows how to work an audience and even get them on stage. She can improvise, play guitar and her gags are not bad either.
Finally, we have Gill, who blend right amount of making fun of himself (Millennials) to poke fun at others (Boomers). Gill has supported the hugely successful Jim Jefferies and you can see similarities in their delivery.
If you want a festival show with less frills and frivolity than The Crushers Comedy Gala is your kind of night. This will show will crush any work week blues.
The Crushers Comedy Gala is over but keep your eye out around Perth as these comedians are always performing somewhere!
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