Review by Steve Bennett at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

If you want to see Rob Caruana this festival, get your ticket now.

Not because it’s such a hot show it’s sure to sell out, but because the odds are that the comedian will do himself a serious injury with his inept clowning before the end of the run.

When a circus professional does a stunt, we’re aware of the danger but impressed at how their training and dedication have conquered that. But when Caruana awkwardly totters on to stilts for the climax of the show, the tension is that he will genuinely come a cropper. After all, he has form, dislocating his leg during one performance last year.

If he DOES know what he’s doing… well, then he’s a far better actor than the preceding 45 minutes suggested, for the incompetence is convincing.

The whole vibe of the show is an unskilled man just giving it a go, trying things he’s never done before because ‘what the hell?’. The stage, dominated by the massive curved staircase to a fire escape, is littered with props: balloons for making animals, a bowdlerised musical keyboard, the toy ‘groan tubes’ – which he ends up dismantling – and plenty more besides.

He’s worked out some bits before he got here, but frequently just idly picks something up and thinks on the spur of the moment: ‘What if I try this?’  Often the answer is: ‘Not much’ but sometimes it pays off. It actually doesn’t take that much to tip a stunt from miss to hit, the knowledge that it’s been done on the fly and our desire to see him succeed amplifying small victories.

This self-confessed ‘silly goose’ has captured that elusive sense of spontaneous fun that all comedians are trying to create. The messy show has genuine chaos rather than the artificial sort manufactured by other zany performers. But chaos means failing sometimes, and quite a few of his ideas do flop, although Caruana's carefree air of playfulness is never dented.

The mucking about is anchored with a few prepared set pieces, some of which are charmingly silly, such as the mime of his driving to the gig, or his entanglement in the mic cable before he even gets going. You might almost think he could be professional if he tried… but he’s far too fickle and irresponsible for that.

Review date: 13 Apr 2017
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