Confident, charming and full of joy, the man just wants to entertain you. The good news is he does. Dressed up in his fines to the nines, he is both Jeeves and Wooster. His goofy, fun-loving personality is undercut by a sharp wit and craftiness. Like a sweaty, old time song and dance man in a music hall, he works the room with practiced craft.
You can’t go too far, as long as it gets a laugh. And Andy does every time. The show is basically Life in the key of Andrew. Interrogated by an unseen voice, he is trying to explain why “I am what I am,” in the words of Popeye or Albin from La Cage aux Folles. It’s a solid comic device that reminded me of Armando Iannucci in Stewart Lee’s TV show. It provides a smart, meta way to call out reliance on standard comedy tropes and bullshit while moving the show on at a cracking pace. The material is all top notch, from Tony Abbott presiding over student and homeless gladiators at a colosseum in Western Sydney to a deconstruction of the lyrics of That’s Amore as a two person declaration of love, it is all inventive and very, very funny.
A good time show that will leave you proud to be a dandy.
BY JACK FRANKLIN
