Review by Steve Bennett

Carl Barron is Australia’s answer to Peter Kay, finding comedy in the day-to-day observation of the things we all subconsciously do. Like Kay, he is a very skilful performer. Like Kay downside is that many of his comments seem an obvious statement of what we already know. And like Kay, he has found this brand of stand-up to be very lucrative, with two bestselling DVDs to his name in his native land.

He’s at his best when he’s discussing the minutiae of social mores – the little tics and meaningless phrases we all unconsciously adopt as a lubricant to make interaction, if not communication, easier. The laughs of recognition are plentiful as he expertly makes the audience think about things they do that they have never previously considered.

There are anecdotes from his childhood, too, and an abundance of the sort of comedy that comfortably reinforces things everyone has surely noticed, which is where the originality falls down. Nor is he above recycling a couple of pub gags, nor mining such predictable territory as the difference between what Australians mean by thongs and what the British do.

But audiences love him. He’s a very amiable personality, a slightly bewildered everyman seeing the ridiculous wherever he goes, and he has certainly got gifts for both physicality and comic timing that maximises the impact of even the most workaday of his material. It’s why he’s such a popular mainstream act, even if he isn’t pushing the creative envelope. And if you’re as successful as he is, why would you want to?

Review date: 1 Jun 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett