Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

This wild, intense hurtle through the whizz-bang mind of Demi Lardner gives ‘zany’ a good name.

There’s no respite from the onslaught of daft ideas, crashing into one another in a fast-paced ride, with little linking one moment of craziness to the next, save for the winsome comedian’s unhinged personality.

The unrelenting pace is impressive. It may be silliness, but it requires a clarity and efficiency of writing to scrunch such odd ideas into bite-sized morsels. And while Lardner batters defences down with so many brief jabs, there’s quality as well as quantity thanks to her uniquely creative brain.

Fine moments zip by. I loved the acronym JESUS to which this show abides, but it’s gone in moments, on to the next morsel of twisted genius. And although the tone is big and brash, there’s nuance in the writing – a phrase such as ‘she still has almost all of her ears’ is splendidly evocative, and funny, in so few words.

Through all the madness, some glimpses of a possible reality peak through. Snippets of her father’s dinner conversation, his Google history and the fact he owns far too many birds, which she fears he loves more than her, paint a picture with just a few vivid dabs. And maybe go some way to explaining all this…

There are poems, props – including a giant horse skeleton on stage for the duration for very little reason – surreal pencil sketches, a modicum of audience participation, and a driving soundtrack forever pushing the show forward, all adding to the whirlpool effect of being sucked into Lardner’s rabbit-hole.

She often acknowledges the stupidity of this extravagant endeavour, and how it could even be a disturbing assault on sanity, but never undermines it. This is her world and she’s utterly committed to it, but needs us to know she understands how it could be perceived. This – plus her cheery acknowledgement of the occasional technical snafu – provides an endearing human edge to the absurdity. 

Let’s make no bones about it, I Love Skeleton is an invigorating blast of the bizarre.

Review date: 1 Apr 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival