Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett

This is a show that’s been a lifetime in the making. And a desperately rough lifetime at that.

Corey White is the son of a heroin addict mother and a hardened, violent criminal father. He spent his youth in and out of foster homes and a chunk of his young adulthood addicted to ice. And that’s just the half of it. Every time it seems like he’s at the bottom of the world, things take a turn for the worse.

It’s a back story that would have even Richard Pryor going: ‘That’s tough, man…’

Yet despite the odds being stacked so heavily against such an outcome, he has emerged a personable, optimistic comedian, now able to look back at his awful past with a wry, but surprisingly upbeat, wit. There is clearly a dark undertone to this hugely impressive debut, but the tone is light. The take-home messages are of compassion, and that no situation is so bleak that it cannot be reversed.

Given his past, White can be forgiven for going a little heavy on these inspirational themes, and for evangelising about the transformative, cathartic powers of comedy, both in laughing in the face of adversity and, for him, finding salvation in performing stand-up.

He clearly wants to do his best by the art form in return, and offers a uncompromisingly honest, smart and considered commentary on everything from trust in relationships to victim-blaming. It’s funny too – a fact very easy to overlook when describing the content. He’s got a keen way with witty analogies, teasingly mocks middle-class problems compared to his own, and even throws in the occasional indulgent pun to soften the impact of any gallows humour.

The astonishing autobiographical story, the stand-up equivalent of the misery memoir, has an irresistible power, but even without it White would come across as a charismatic and warm performer, with an ease, confidence and pace that belies his newcomer status.

Ignore the show’s poor title – the Cane Toad Effect is a reference to unintended consequences such as the ecological destruction the amphibians have caused since being introduced to Australia as natural pest control – both the content and White’s natural poise are going to make him hard to beat for this year’s best newcomer accolade.

Review date: 17 Apr 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival