Victoria Hotel, Vic’s Bar, March 28 until April 21, 2013
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Stars: ***
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 29
Review also published in Herald Sun online on Sat March 30. KH
"Slightly weird, shambolic, impeccably dressed praying mantis"
Asher
Treleaven is like a leggy, impeccably dressed praying mantis on hot coals as he
paces and prances across the stage, almost nutting himself on the incredibly
low ceiling.
His
show is shambolic, probably intentionally so, and Treleaven grins and smirks at
his own errors, treating mistakes as gifts and even turning into comedy gold
the potentially disastrous missed cue of the opening song.
There’s
no getting around it: Treleaven’s got ‘peculiar’ written all over him, with his
spaghetti legs, eccentric physicality, his constant diversions and
non-sequiturs that send him down rabbit holes.
He
looks like a guy from a 1940’s Film Noir – but he’s not; he looks like a
Hitler Youth – we hope he’s not.
After
his experience of the love and adulation of American audiences, Treleaven
bemoans the Australian obsession with cutting down Tall Poppies that is painfully
obvious during his gig in outback Coober Pedy.
His
criticism of the French invention of foie gras is witty, his Zumba dance is hilariously
bizarre and his illustrated “Celebrity thoughts of the day” quote such intellectual
giants as Jean Claude Van Damme, Vin Diesel and Bob Katter.
His
final, outlandish explanation of the causes of the Global Financial Crisis uses
soft toys as visual aids and ends with the audience hurling cuddly toys as if
in a schoolyard food fight.
Treleaven’s
a bit
wicked, a bit bonkers, and seems to have too many limbs for one body – a
good recipe for a comic.
By
Kate Herbert
Quote on vintage clothing: “I like that
special feeling you get when you put on a dead man’s second-best suit.” Treleaven
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