Review by Steve Bennett

‘See him now’ is usually reviewers’ hyperbole. But if Luke Heggie’s previous employment record is anything to go by, it’ll be good advice, since he won’t be a comedian for long.

He has, he tells us, averaged three-and-a-half jobs a year throughout his working ‘career’. Not one of life’s ambitious go-getters, he has drifted through a series of mundane blue-collar occupations just to keep the wolf from the door.

It’s given him a good range of experiences to mine for his comedy, and, more crucially, a couldn’t-give-a-damn attitude that informs his no-nonsense sarcasm. In his debut show, the 2010 Raw Comedy winner is not attempting to push the boundaries of comedy – he would have you believe he’s far too unmotivated for that – but produce a robust, gag-heavy hour of everyman comedy.

In that, he succeeds with ease, seeming every inch the gig-hardened pro, with a well-defined, cynical style, despite his relative inexperience.

For a lazy guy he doesn’t half set a cracking pace, nimbly leaping from story to story without pause for banter or segues. In a comedy scene full of nice people being charming, it’s good to see a newbie focus on the funnies without much care for the other airs and graces.

Many of the show’s highlights involve mocking the stupidity of others, from his moronic restaurant co-worker spouting unwitting malapropisms to the dim, vacuous egotists on both sides of the camera when he worked as a TV dogsbody. A frequent refrain is his own lack of formal smarts, but his down-to-earth commonsense trumps these dimwits every time – and it doesn’t stop him doling out unasked-for advice to anyone from dumb criminals to suicidal colleagues.

Working-class comics often get a bad rap from the predominantly middle-class comedy industry, but Heggie’s blunt approach and instinctive wit mark him out as a natural, original stand-up. Let’s hope this is one job he sticks at.

Review date: 19 Apr 2012
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival