Comic creates a bespoke gig for Chortle's reviewer

What’s a comedian to do when they realise there’s only one person in their audience – and it’s a reviewer?

For Australian absurdist Jordan Sharp, currently performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the answer was  to rewrite the show as a customised personal experience for the critic… me.

Cue a hastily assembled PowerPoint choose-your-own adventure game that resulted in my selection of beer and snacks, writes Steve Bennett, and much discussion about how weird the situation was.

And with Sharp joined on stage by fellow comic Charlie Valentine, plus a videographer and a tech also in the Motley Bauhaus room, I was definitely outnumbered. 

What’s more, after Sharp made the decision to stage this bespoke show, he panicked over the possibility of last-minute sales or walk-ups spoiling his plan, so bought out all the other seats. A ‘sell-out’, funded from his own pocket as he won’t be getting the venue’s share of the ticket sales back.

With a situation that was more conversation than gig, it’s impossible to say whether I’ve changed my verdict on Sharp’s comedy. He was advertising the show, The World You Were Born Into No Longer Exists, with quotes from an earlier Chortle review saying his act was ‘bereft of jokes’ and concluding that ‘stand-up is not his calling'. 

But maybe hospitality is, given I got beer and chips out of an experience I won’t forget in a hurry…

Published: 18 Apr 2025