Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

Think of the ‘typical’ New Zealand sense of humour, and you’d probably think of Flight Of The Conchords. Well, Guy Montgomery has definitely been cut from the same cloth, with a underplayed silliness and a casual irony that makes him a very engaging presence.

His style is dry but quirky, setting up surreal premises, yet delivering them as if they are perfectly normal. So if you’ve every wondered what Wally of Where’s…? fame is like after a hard day at work, or how an Australian fly differs from a Kiwi one (it’s all about their ‘sense of self’, apparently)  then Montgomery is the man to tell you.

Occasionally there’s a germ of truth in a routine, such as the pat phrases he hears about New Zealand whenever he’s abroad, but the roots of most segments come from the bizarre offshoots of an idling imagination.

Offbeat pauses and off-kilter language gives his routines peculiarly compelling rhythm, while he’s playfully knowing about his approach. Self-deprecation is part of his make-up; acknowledging that as a white twentysomething middle-class comedian he’s like garlic bread - available everywhere. But he is, at least, the sort where a bit of herb or cheese has been added to make it different from the norm.

On the debit side, he can’t always bring the audience with him on some of his more absurd journeys, though it’s not for want of dedication, more that the appealingly rickety nature of some of his set-ups can’t quite support the weight of the routine.

An hour seems a bit of a stretch, too. The super-extended flight of fancy involving a disillusioned sports coach might let him show how he can hold an audience with his storytelling, but its deliberate push into overtime is frustrating, almost as if he’s padding to get to the end. His commitment to a stupidly long bit before the undermining payoff is clearly the joke in itself, but it’s a stretch.

Nonetheless, with this Melbourne debut, Montgomery certainly makes his peculiar presence known on the wider international circuit.

Review date: 9 Apr 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett