Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

In-your-face absurdist Tom Walker is lightening up. Gone is the sphincter-tightening audience participation of previous shows, now he ensures he’s this biggest idiot in the room: the goofy Jim Carrey lookalike, and actalike, presenting a cavalcade of dumb sketches in his flamingo-pink shorts suit and kneepads.

Do not be deceived by the highfalutin title – as if! –  Honk Honk Honk Honk Honk is a fast-flowing stream of stupidly inventive ideas, with the emphasis on the ‘stupidly’. And the relentlessness calls to mind British idiot Tim Vine.

A few skits outstay their welcome – an extended mime of an exaggeratedly violent fight especially seems to drag – but predominantly the pace is tight, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments of off-the-wall stupidity. Here’s a noirish detective spoof, there’s an absurd warning about police horses, here’s a dopey sketch about French dogs that he gets us all to enthusiastically chant – or should that be chien-t – for.

He delivers all with a simple-minded grin, even when he takes things into dark territory, abusing his baby doll or describing one sick idea for a gameshow that resulted from an intrusive thought. A bad taste undercurrent occasional peeps through his silliness, giving it a more brutal edge than you might expect.

That said, Walker doesn’t always judge the tone right. On one hand, the vibe is to strap in and go with the insanity, since he’s committing to it whether we like it or not. On the other, he’s a little apologetic about the occasional missteps in his preposterous endeavour, over-concerned that he’s not getting the reaction he thinks he deserves, even if that’s at odds with what’s otherwise a bold, boisterous ‘screw you’ performance.

And you cannot fault his dedication. He’s even learned computer coding for a couple of skits (performed, ably enough, in ACMI’s Games Room) – even if  the time that must have taken could well have been a distraction activity from the writing process.

The only ambition he doesn’t really have is for this scattergun hour to amount to anything. But if you’re not concerned about that, enjoy immersing yourself in his full-on zaniness.

Review date: 7 Apr 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival