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Word
Presented by: Julia Sutherland -
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Venue: Bar Open - Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Reviewer: Chris Hughes
Date Reviewed: 22nd March 2008
The
Oxford dictionary describes comedy as:
Comedy
• noun
(pl. comedies) 1 entertainment consisting of jokes and sketches
intended to make an audience laugh. 2 a film, play, or programme
intended to arouse laughter. 3 a humorous or satirical play in which
the characters ultimately triumph over adversity.
—
DERIVATIVES comedic /kmeedik/ adjective.
— ORIGIN
Greek komoidia, from komos ‘revel’ + aoidos ‘singer’.
Julia
Sutherland has evolved via a clever transition from musical theatre,
to cabaret/hybrid stand up comedy
over the past five years, however her latest offering “Word” marks
her debut into the fully-fledged world of
stand up.
Set
amongst the bohemian backdrop of Brunswick Street’s Bar Open,
Julia’s offering explores the inner workings
of the English language, with hilarious consequences. The venue is
humble, yet inviting and typically Brunswick Street, with it’s
tatty, yet comfortable couches and reasonably priced drinks. Julia
displays her incredibly sophisticated understanding of the English
language as she takes a walk through the wonderful world of
phonetics, euphemisms, oxy-morons and even the good old dad joke!
This show borders on being academic, but don’t fear, even the most
intellectually challenged veggie maths graduate would be able to
keep up with this
one. Complex and clever word play is presented along side the
lowbrow brilliance of 20th century wordsmith
Brian Adams in a witty bend of intellectualism and down to earth
belly laughs. This show really does appeal to just about anyone and
had the audience, who ranged from 18 – 80, laughing from start to
finish.
Julia
uses her musical theatre background to her advantage and
intersperses reworked pop covers (with altered lyrics to match the
theme of the show of course) backed up by her equally talented
brother Kent on guitar. There are some laugh out loud moments in
this show and with further audience airing, I have no doubt the act
will improve even more. Occasionally jokes fell flat or did not go
far enough, but this is something that all good comics experience
(particularly when they are just starting out) and thanks to her
easy going nature, excellent stagecraft and instant likeability,
Julia is able to forge ahead to the next gag and any break in her
canter, was quickly brought back into line. Julia’s act is as
entertaining as any around on the Melbourne Comedy Festival circuit
and is not only a gallant first effort, at $15, it’s bloody good
value.
As a
skilled character actress, Julia’s entourage of characters and
impersonations are just fantastic and are a real strength of her
performance. The charming, cosy setting, combined with Julia’s pace,
wit and easily accessible sense of humour makes “Word” a must see as
part of the festival.
Chris
Hughes
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