[2013028] Arnie Pie – Because I Felt Like It
Arnold Luichareonkit @ Austral Hotel – Red Room
11:00pm, Mon 18 Feb 2013
When trawling through my Shortlist, the great thing about an 11pm Monday night show is that I’m almost certain to be able to fit it in. The shitty thing about an 11pm Monday night show is that very few other people will make the effort.
So it was that my Fringe Buddy and I rolled up at the Red Room right on starting time to find Arnold Luichareonkit – who adopts the name of a Simpsons character onstage – hovering outside the door, slightly dejected. His face brightened immediately upon seeing us – and, once we’d determined that we were the only two attendees for the session, we did the usual are-you-okay-performing-to-a-small-crowd check. “No problems,” he assured us, “I like intimate shows.”
It was thus a very friendly and casual start to the show as we planted ourselves optimally for both ourselves and Arnie (front row in the Red Room is just too close), and he thanked us individually for being his audient…s. With such a gentle and simple start, Arnie had us immediately onside, and he had me completely won over when we discovered a mutual hatred of Newcastle.
From there, he delves into the rich goldmine of ethnic material that is his father. Using racial stereotypes as both support and contrast, his constant use of accents really showed off Pie’s training as an actor; more character voices came out as he took us on travel tales throughout the US and Europe, performing comedy at clubs all over the world. His comedy is solid, though the threat of political incorrectness hinted by his précis was never really delivered.
Of course, there was a bit of good-natured back’n’forth between the pair of us and Arnie, as he occasionally offered us the choice of material to explore next (as well as asking for feedback in a cheerful manner). And, when another couple rolled up about halfway through the show, they walked in during one of out short discussions – “oh… it’s an interactive show” said one of them as they sat down the back of the room. Sadly, they took their observation to heart, and proceeded to intermittently interject barely discernible quips from the dark throughout the rest of the show, which made the rest of the performance both tricky for Arnie to manage in an agreeable manner, and way less enjoyable for us.
And that’s a shame, because I was having a ball when Arnie was smoothly cruising through his material; he’s not only pretty damn funny, but he’s also cool as a cucumber on stage without distancing himself from the audience… at least, he was when there were only two audients. As a foursome, the gig was distinctly less awesome – though it’s pretty hard to blame Arnie Pie for that.