Deep inside the barracks of Howey Place’s art gallery, Fort Delta, an effervescent bundle of satirical fun awaited to unleash her goofy boot camp on a willing crowd.
If you arrived in activewear thinking the kale, lemons and yoga mat featured in Bec Somers press shot would be literally incorporated then your interpretation of An Evening of Total BS was completely wrong.
The author of Kale of the Century and host of I’m A Celery Get Me Outta Here, Somers is a pun general who can manipulate her words with ease. Making her Melbourne International Comedy Festival debut, Somers looked to reaffirm her established fitness comic repute and did with a gusto and energy not anticipated.
It wasn’t the joke after joke humour embodying traditional comedy but a refreshing, screwball-styled spoof. Punters were requested to hold hands in joining together towards a common goal – burpees, star jumps, lunges merged into one to create the impossible exercise, you have to have a ‘mantra’ to be a yoga expert and apparently it’s not right if you’re not making deconstructed kale for breakfast.
She made fun of Masterchef and The Biggest Loser to great accuracy – for Somers, growing up was tough under the eye of parents Michelle Bridges and Commando while the voices of Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris were jokingly mimicked over a PA behind the wall.
Most of the humour resonated with the crowd but some snippets weren’t so relevant. Throughout the boot camp, Somers was consistently interrupted by construction workers drilling past their noise deadline. It engaged the audience at the beginning but then became an interference and ruined the mood at times. Unfortunately, due to the tight structure of the show, it couldn’t be abolished if things went wrong the first time.
Nevertheless, a small gripe from a hilarious take on the modern day fitness fad where Somers achieved most success from her stage energy and quirky wordplay.
By Tom Parker
