Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Blake Everett’s only 21 but this is already his fifth solo stand-up show, and he boasts an assuredness comics ten years his senior would envy.

He’s a big, daft ball of fun, cheerily and enthusiastically blasting out puns and jingles to energise the crowd. Aware of his own absurdity, he sets up one premise with tongue firmly in cheek – that this is 2034 and we are remembering those far-off days of 2019 – before abandoning it for another.

Greatest Hit(s) is supposedly structured around the most formative experiences of his life, from relationship milestones to performing in front of 2,000 people at this festival’s Class Clowns final for school-age comics in 2012.

However he – and we – often forget the premise, not that it’s of any consequence. For example, one long, and stupidly amusing, routine revolves around him wearing a ‘dad jumper’ then trying to forge a relationship with a fictional daughter. Then there are the cat/celebrity impressions.

The title is also a pun on the incident that made the news last year, when he was bashed by a group of teenagers in the outer suburb of Frankston, leaving him with seven stitches to his head.

Everett’s transition between the silly and the serious isn’t the smoothest, even though, of course, he tries to alleviate the bad memories of that night with gags. There are other segments that don’t quite boast the doltish invention of his finest moments,  too, such as the song about sending dick pics.

But the enduring impression is of a young man with natural funny bones, joshing with his audience, creating dumb songs with his loop pedal and dumber jokes with his loopier mind. Comedy is so obviously in his blood, and he’s definitely going places. 

But maybe not back to Frankston.

Review date: 1 Apr 2019
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett