Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

They are known as double D - but there’s one ‘d’ word that’s in short supply in Michelle Brasier and Laura Few’s livewire double-act: discipline.

There’s something joyous about the way they muck around together, especially when it’s something as stupid as their pincer-waving crab characters, although their looseness almost inevitably means their flimsy plot has lulls over the hour, however keenly they sell their nonsense.

A Very Fancy Dinner Party is built around one of TV’s many, many cookery shows, in which the winners receive a $50 supermarket voucher, and the losers, well, die. ‘The Hungry Games’ they punningly call it; one of the occasional real jokes of the show.

In lieu of taut writing, it’s carried on a noisy, daggy enthusiasm, which proves thoroughly engaging. The pair exude a charmingly desperate-to-please naivety, like tweens putting on a dress-up show for their aunts. Their brio, and obvious determination to make each other laugh more than anybody else with their overblown performance, is reminiscent of a young French and Saunders.

Never mind that there’s little acting deployed to differentiate characters – the crustaceans are probably the most well-rounded creation, and hat’sjust because they have a cod French accent. There’s also a couple of Essex tourists ‘not from around here’ and a father-and-son duo unable to communicate with each other.

A few songs are thrown into the silliness stew, both parodies and a couple of original numbers, including an anthem to the joys of cheese, that gives them further rein to bounce around the confined space, spreading their silliness.  That their singular audience volunteer threw himself so wholeheartedly into his role says a lot about the welcoming, friendly and daft mood they spread. (Or about the number of arts graduates knocking around this festival.)

So while Double Denim might not be serving up a substantial meal of comedy, their full-on embrace of their inner idiots makes for a very refreshing snack.

Review date: 6 Apr 2019
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett