Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

She’s winsome, persuasive and fun, but Debbie Zukerman’s Gonzo Hour (actually 35 minutes) seems slight, with little to make it stand out from the many, many Gaullier-inspired audience interaction shows that are now a staple of the comedy festival circuit.

She opens the show in a yellow waterproof and with a vaguely Eastern European accent, redolent of Andy Kaufman’s Foreign Man, and just as naive and sweet. She also does his shtick of doing non-impressions, too – but while Kaufman ‘mimicked’ celebrities without changing anything, Zukerman dives through a box of hats creating a string of non-characters, deliberately al the same.

Yet her childlike presence is a delight, and as she trills about the prizes in an audience game of pass the parcel being ‘so pretty’, we want to make her happy. That’s in contrast to the fearsome Professor Zygielboym, her other alter ego who’s far more imperious.

Our stern academic proclaims with great melodrama, striking big, deliberate poses as she goes, and is very concerned with the whereabouts of her golden box.

Some of the set pieces are deliberately patience-testing: we watch passively as she munches through chocolate, play a pointless variation of Find The Lady and are made to sing the Russian national anthem but using only the word Zygielboym for way, way too long. 

If you’re selected as a ‘volunteer', you’ll get a bit of extra discomfort, too… though kudos to Naomi, one of tonight’s victims, for getting the biggest laugh with a faux-innocent aside.

Zukerman remains more playful than humiliating, though, and there’s plenty of smiles here; it’s just hard to see what edge Teh Gonzo Hour has over so many similar shows

Review date: 3 Apr 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival