Stylish, slick and as debonair as ever – with trademark immaculately coiffed copper quiff – Rhys Nicholson charms us exponentially throughout Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!, ‘til we actually snort towards the end of the hour.
And from an admission that the box crusher (“which is not a lesbian coworker”) got them through one of their first-ever jobs – at a Go-Lo discount store – early on in this perfectly paced show, the guffaws come thick and fast.
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Nicholson won the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award for Most Outstanding Show (formerly the Barry Award) for Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!, which he admits contains not “a single joke” written for the boyfriends of straight women in attendance. A bit later on, Rhys asks, genuinely, “Are straight men okay?” Then a hilarious irate-old-white-guy impersonation follows: “We can’t say anything, anymore!”
Rhys is non-binary and has a pronoun suggestion: “Why not put ‘he’ and ‘they’ together: ‘He-ey!’” The closest Rhys got to exercising during lockdown was trying to have sex with his partner under a weighted blanket, they claim, before quipping, “And it was the least anxious I’ve been during sex in a long time”. Rhys is endearingly self-deprecating: during Summertime they resemble someone who had a baby in the last ten minutes, we’re told.
Kids referred to as “old souls” are actually gay, according to Rhys, and their material about being a “creepy” child (eg. calling mum “Mother Dearest” for a spell) who never actually had to come out as gay, it was just known, and used to perform “plays” – which were actually endless acceptance speeches for imaginary awards – delights the audience.
Standout WTF? moments include recollections of watching porn with their straight mates back in the day – all trying to conceal boners – and the bit explaining why they hope to be a divorcee someday. But it’s Rhys’ reminder that gay men in Australia are still prohibited from giving blood since they’re considered “at risk” that lingers long after the vigorous applause fades.
Best bit: Their brilliant impressions, especially of multiple characters acting out a scene (especially the conversation they imagine occurs inside a fictitious store, in a place like Daylesford, called “Gloria’s Shoppe”, which is run by – and named after – a divorcée of the same name).
Number of legit LOLs: Regular LOLs and one snort.
Discover more about Rhys here.
