Comedy Review: The Big Show, Comedy Chamber, Town Hall

Brit Eddy Brimson's Rodney Hide joke was a show highlight. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A boozy Saturday night crowd wants easy gags. Thankfully Gordon Southern, the host of The Big Show - one of the more glamorous daily events at the festival - was full of them.

His jokes around binge drinking and Aussie/Kiwi accents prompted a steady stream of that canned sort of laughter, preparing the audience for a full-steam attack on the senses by coarse Canadian Pete Johansson. The slovenly king of irony opened with a set of punchlines that would serve well as an earnest follow-up sexual education session for the over-30s.

A master of the well-oiled analogy, Johansson turned his tubby waistline - and everything below it - into a crude half-hour of wildly imaginative imagery that will no doubt have his crowd referring to cracked coconuts, mice running towards cheese and grandfather clock pendulums for a while yet. He was followed by relative newcomer Mike Wozniak, a British comedian resembling a mad scientist who has made a breakthrough discovery about the birds and bees.

Unfortunately some of his quick lines were muffled by his slug of a moustache and hurried delivery. Wozniak quickly learned that opening himself up to audience-interaction would just lead to cringeful heckles from the overly-lubricated, though fellow Brit Eddy Brimson did a good job of wrapping the show up on a high, with gags that sat well with the, by then, somewhat dizzy audience.

He also threw in some clever compare-and-contrast imagery that pointed to the real difference between Korean and British women and gave a fresh, well-received perspective on transtasman rivalry.

A highlight was his Rodney Hide-as-Jesus joke, funniest perhaps, because of Brimson's undeniable resemblance to the ousted politician.

Lowdown:
What: The Big Show 2011.

When and where: Comedy Chamber, Town Hall tonight until Saturday at 8.45pm.

Brimson performs at the Classic every night this week, while Johansson, Wozniak and Southern perform solo shows at the Classic next week.