At around the halfway point of The Hugh Jackman Diaries, Damien Lawlor jumps up and down on stage to thumping techno music, dressed in nothing but speedos with teddy bears attached to his groin and head and footy socks on his hands, while images of Senator Penny Wong flash on the screen. You’d think this would make more sense in the context of the show, but when the comedian has to actually thank the audience for staying until the end of the hour, any aspect of logicality pretty much goes out the window. Laughs are few, with the audience sitting in stunned silence throughout most of the 60 minutes.
The show is formed around a series of fabricated ‘diary entries’ by Hugh Jackman, played by Lawlor, with Australia’s ‘favourite celebrity’ presented as a completely unhinged alcoholic who constantly reeks of vomit, urine, petrol and all manner of things. Jackman hangs out in garbage bins with Prince William, drinks goon with Cate Blanchett, goes on crime sprees with Rupert Murdoch and receives words of wisdom from Bert Newton.
The one-man show is essentially a performance art piece, with multiple costume changes, voice-overs, psychedelic graphics, pounding music and Lawlor hidden behind a variety of masks throughout the entire show. It’s hard to compare the show to anything else at the festival – it simply sits in a completely different realm. The show is completely bizarre and certainly not forgettable, mainstream or boring by any standards. It’s like a best-of compilation of all the weirdest dreams you’ve ever had – there’s some basis of reality in there somewhere, with a familiar person, place or event, but when you try to explain it to someone you realise none of it makes any sense whatsoever.
BY KELSEY BERRY
