Review by Steve Bennett

With his sharp understanding of the absurd one-liner, Rob Hunter could have produced an entertaining an imaginative parody of Raymond Chandler-style detective novels. Instead this confusing and vague plot gets bogged down in irrelevant, inward-looking nonsense about hack stand-up – as if his frame of reference couldn’t possibly extend beyond his own world.

There are plenty of mangled metaphors, silly non sequiturs and flourishes of inventive writing to hint at what could have been, but the story is so inconsequential that it doesn’t hold the attention and the show disintegrates under the weight of self-indulgence.

A former Golden Gribbo nominee for the best independent show at the festival, Hunter pays a hard-bitten gumshoe, trading nicely warped dialogue with his rookie sidekick Joel, aka fellow comic Luke McGregor. Alongside this is rather too much use of taped voiceover, which has to fulfil two functions: parody of such detective movies and as a cost-cutting measure. The budget for this tiny room doesn’t extend to a third actor, so the obligatory sultry female client has to remain unseen.

She charges them with some suitably obtuse quest – so far, so noir – which leads them to a comedy club, where an arrogant but dreadful comic is getting easy laughs. It quickly transpires that Rob used to be a comedian before turning detective - from a public dick to a private one, I guess – in a turn of events that elicits some raucous laughs from the back of the room. However, the suspicion is these are acolytes chuckling at in-jokes.

This is pretty much all the plot you get to sustain the hour; and while the dialogue sometimes sparkles, when it attempts anything other than pointed badinage, it fails. The real case here is the mystery of the missing storyline.

Hunter seems an astute writer, though his acting skills are highly limited, but this an underpowered effort.

Review date: 6 Apr 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett