Review by Steve Bennett

Does comedy need another person in dodgy mullet, flannelette shirt and pot-belly pretending to be a bogan? It would take something pretty special to stand out, but whatever that is, Doug doesn’t have it.

The writing here can be as cliched as the character, with some really old jokes including bar-room puns and lines about someone being swanky because all their tattoos are spelled right. And pointing out that you’ve just made a jibe about budget air travel, just like every other comic, doesn’t excuse the fact you made it.

Nevertheless, this portrayal is more sympathetic than some class sneerers. Although a potentially sleazy would-be Lothario, Doug is also a simple man trying to make the best in the world, raising the child he had with Vicky from the carnival food van, and striving to write poetry and romantic prose which he, bizarrely, sticks into second-hand books. But this penchant for literature seems more like an attempt to stretch out a character more than an organic part of his personality.

After all, an hour is certainly a long time to sustain this idea, especially as Doug speaks in a husky, throaty monotone that gets annoying pretty quickly. Attempts to break up the monologue with dancing and singing, via a meat-eater’s version of Mary Had A Little Lamb, feel forced, too. He was introduced to Melbourne audiences in Tracey Cosgrove's Half a Wake show last year, and a cameo alongside other characters is probably a better place for him than centre stage.

That said, he has a nice line in homespun wisdom, such as the difference between Hubba Bubba and Juicy Fruit lovers, that would be worthy of a minutiae-obsessed stand-up. But it’s not enough. Generally Doug seems to be a character without purpose, and and over-familiar archetype at that.

Review date: 17 Apr 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival