Doc Brown is a pretty interesting dude. A few years ago he was a rising star in the UK music scene that suddenly exploded across the globe. He was a fame-hungry rapper in the prime of his life, touring and partying across the planet. He is best-selling novelist Zadie Smith’s brother. He was on the front page of The Guardian newspaper. He was going places.
Doc Brown is a pretty interesting dude. A few years ago he was a rising star in the UK music scene that suddenly exploded across the globe. He was a fame-hungry rapper in the prime of his life, touring and partying across the planet. He is best-selling novelist Zadie Smith’s brother. He was on the front page of The Guardian newspaper. He was going places.
How those places ended up being a medium-sized dark room performing comedy to a small crowd in Australia’s second biggest city is a little perplexing to him, and is the basis of his narrative. His show, ‘Unfamous’ morphs music, spoken word and rap to weave the very personal tale of his failed forays into fame.
The show begins with Doc Brown emerging in a black tracksuit with the hood up, huge gold necklace and grillz on his grin. He then slowly strips back this character and discards these flashy layers, analysing each item until he is left in pants and a t-shirt, likening his simple theatre blacks to that of a “year 11 drama student”, not dissimilar in stereotype to his former “look at me, look at me” lifestyle.
Armed with little more than Da OHP (an overhead projector with a notable story behind its acquisition), some pictures of celebrity friends and a few hardback covers of his sister’s books, he tells his life story of how he flourished then fell out of favour with the UK music scene.
Now let’s be real, everyone loves a little bit of gossip amid their comedy. Doc Brown lampoons hip hop and the wider commercial music scene, sharing stories about old celebrity pals including Kanye West, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse. Having missed the fame boat when it sailed, he doesn’t seem bitter toward these artists, although he has some digs at a relatively safe target – Johnny Borrell of Razorlight.
Doc Brown – real name Ben Smith – remains relatable throughout the show, so it’s no surprise that he was too polite to create the aggressive anthems that are characteristic to the rap scene in the UK. This bravado just ain’t his ball game, so instead he uses the wit and swiftness of the genre to create spoof raps that generate masses of laughter. Show highlights inlcude a flash-card rap slang deciphering segment and employing the audience as a “hype man” to finish the predictable end word of each line in a rap.
While retaining its intelligence and humour, the show is quite a serious tale about the drug-induced downfalls of his previous lifestyle as a deadbeat dad and finishes up with an overarching moral.His inherently likable personality and honest well-told story, performed in his polished style make this a show worth catching, especially for the rap enthusiasts out there. I really laughed. A lot.In comedy, Doc Brown seems to have found the flow he failed to reach within the commercial music world.
