[2015113] Disney Guy
Mark Trenwith @ Garden of Unearthly Delights – Cupola
6:00pm, Thu 5 Mar 2015
Sometimes, even I question how shows make it onto my Shortlist… because it’s not until I’m standing in the queue that I notice Mark Trenwith’s name on the ticket.
Not that the presence of his name is a bad thing; I quite like his comedy… in small doses. Doing a five- or ten-minute spot at an ensemble show, he’s fantastic, and his “postcards” in the yearly Eurowision events are pretty bloody awesome. But his solo shows? Not so much.
But Disney Guy provided a much more cohesive framework for Trenwith to work around, as he presents photographic evidence of his obsession with all things Disney (especially Mickey Mouse) during his childhood. And, far from being a potentially zany – and self-deprecating – subjective review of his younger years, the show actually comes across as a little therapeutic.
Trenwith paints his childhood as ostensibly lonely: through primary school, he tells us, his overt fascination with Disney branded him an outsider. But he then details how, desperate for social acceptance, he buried that love in order to up his cool-factor… and, in turn, tried to find a new identity in other schooling clichés (teacher’s pet, unruly trouble-maker, etc). But repressed personality traits have a habit of bubbling through the surface, and in the end he decides to stay true to himself and own his passion as the Disney Guy.
Because of the overriding theme of repression, Disney Guy wound up being far more downbeat than I would have imagined… there were plenty of laughs to be had, but some of them were more pitying and nervous-understanding than driven by the humour. And Trenwith’s trademark energy as he presented his material seemed almost dissonant compared to his content; having said that, the AV components of his show were perfectly balanced, and it was a genuinely enjoyable way to compare (and contemplate) my own issues (vis-à-vis my current obsession with pop music).
(113) Disney Guy: Amusing (and surprisingly downbeat) tales of adolescence… and more Disney merch than you can imagine. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) March 5, 2015