The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has spanned far and wide in many ways. Concepts have been wildly varied with in your face comedic icons, dramatic and interpretive performers, musicians, improvisationalists – the list goes on. The venues have reached far across the fair city, but this next show took viewers all the way to the Newport Bowls Club. Surrounded by open streets, football fields and train stations, the sleepy hub of Newport was a far stretch from the hustle and bustle of the CBD what with its yellow signs and flyer flingers littering the streets, but the change of venue added to the unique charm that was Mark Swivel’s show, adding to the point of difference that the man offered in his performance.
Strictly speaking, Swivel’s show couldn’t be considered purely comedic. It had elements of hilarity, yes – however the strengths of his performance didn’t come from this, but rather the subject matter. The show had been publicised in every magazine and poster as a tale of travel, the story of a man who falls in love in Bangladesh with a bank – and while this inherently seemed to conjure up images of an eccentric man who would be cartwheeling across the stage whilst spinning metaphors on a treadle wheel, the reality of the situation was that Swivel was more here to engage the audience’s intellect than he was their funnybone.
His story captured many aspects of Swivel’s life – from his love of the Bee Gees to his son, all the while telling the tale of his time spent in Bangladesh. He’d watched microfinance change the face of the country as the small loans given to the people helped develop a poverty stricken country, and in the time that he observed this, he met interesting characters along the way. He had a real knack for explaining the stories of these characters, ranging from ‘guides’ to the people who prospered from these enterprises all the way up to the managers of the bank.
The setting was excellent, the story was original and the content left the audience gripped onto every word, but the humour employed was very selective and was extremely limited to a few intelligent quips that rang well with the 35-55 year old crowd members in the audience who seemed to enjoy these moments extensively. Even though crowd involvement was great (free cauliflower lobbed for those who could answer the correct questions) and the show was both gripping and unique, the content might have been too targeted to call it an objectively great comedy show. Swivel definitely has the potential, charisma and intelligence to make it happen, though.
BY BRANDON HILLS
