Review by Steve Bennett

‘I’m brand new at this guys!’ gushes twentysomething Jack Post near he top of his first festival offering. Yet already he’s deconstructing both his own show and comedy in general. Today’s youth are so self-centred...

Yet he can be pretty good at it. He’s got a relaxed, self-effacing likability, and an upbeat ease on stage undented by mishaps such as a guitar string breaking early on, even though he clearly doesn’t have a spare. Sometimes his boy-next-door likability is stretched a little, as in the deliberately cheesy ‘magic’-trick opening or an egotistical trailer that’s obviously tongue-in-cheek, but still feels like passive salesmanship. However, his charm emerges intact.

On the topic of comedy, he imagines an observational stand-up who’s far too specific (not an original idea, but nicely done) while he also exposes the inherent flaws in his own premise, which means he’s bound by logic to open with his worst song... a commitment he sees through, with gritted teeth.

This is pretty funny, but he’s actually at his best when he’s not navel-gazing. A track about being haunted by a ghost in his room and the delightfully puerile singalong Boners are stand-outs, and fairly traditional comic songs at that – though not lyric-swap ‘parodies’, thankfully.

He falters a little later in the show, some audience business involving a tatty sombrero goes on a bit too long, and a similarly over-extended idea about his time-travelling descendent, involving plenty of video footage, doesn’t hold up to much.

Yet this is a confident, frequently amusing first outing – even if Post is sometimes a bit too nonchalant for his own good.

Review date: 18 Apr 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival