A Dingo Stole My Latte (FringeTIX)
A bunch of Northerners… and Big Al @ Duke of York
8:00pm, Thu 15 Mar 2007
I’ve never been to the Duke of York before. Sure, plenty of shows in past years that were based here had been shortlisted, but then readily dropped as being “too difficult” – that is, I was scared to try a new venue. What a puss.
Anyhoo, I pop my DoY cherry, grab a beer, and have a peek around. It’s a really nice pub, and the performance area upstairs is ace. That, and I hear the Mario theme on the stereo. How fucking cool is that?
A Dingo Stole My Latte consists of three acts from the Northern Territory, and must have got some good writeups (then again, what show hasn’t? …cue un-witty and completely fucking obvious “‘Tiser reviews are shit” comment), because there’s a stack of people here… a lot of more, ummm, elderly folk, too. That is, older than me. Which is certainly getting on in years.
Local comedian Big Al opens for the NT boys, and he’s certainly improved his act a shitload from when I last saw him. Adelaide-centric jokes are thick on the ground for all these guys, but Big Al hammers the Elizabeth/Port Adelaide/Noarlunga jokes home. Good stuff.
I have to admit, my research isn’t 100% on this one, so names may be hopelessly wrong :}
Craig Zee is a big guy. And jesus, can he drink. Reasonably funny, too – his “cyclone warning” bit was ace. Phil Denson, a goofy scrawn of a chap, is going to beat the living shit out of me if I’ve confused his name with Craig’s. He opens with a cracking song – “Hermaphrodite Aphrodite” – but then fails to deliver anything near as good (though his tales of sword fights were pretty reasonable).
The two chaps who comprise “Separated At Birth”, however, have all the makings of being a great double-act. They bounce brilliantly off each other, wonderful timing, and their One-Line Song was a gutbuster. Their buffoonish set-up for an otherwise pissweak Macarena joke was, in retrospect, staggeringly well executed.
In short, you could do a lot worse than getting your Latte stolen by these chaps. Whilst it’s not the most cohesive and even hour of comedy ever, there’s some fresh material – and attitudes – hidden amongst it.