Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

We should be grateful Luka Muller didn’t do the comedy festival show he spent the best part of lockdown working on – a tribute to Michel Lotito, who holds the Guinness World Record for the most number of aeroplanes eaten (one). 

While that might have been a paean to human endeavour and single-minded determination, however insane, Yeah Nice proves a heck of a lot funnier by laying bare the comedian’s own quirks and vulnerabilities.

He is vexed by modern anxieties and voices a distrust of anyone who isn’t seeing a therapist. He talks engagingly about a sense of shame and guilt around food and even seems to have an intrusive thought interrupt him mid-show. 

However, the most distinctive segment addresses his asexuality – one of the more overlooked letters in the rainbow alphabet, even in these enlightened times when any consensual attraction can be discussed without judgment.

Muller is frank and witty about what it’s like to plump for ‘none of the above’ in a largely horny society, gently self-deprecating while coming to accept this as an intrinsic part of who he is. Such ratification has also made him a more honest comic and apparently reinvigorated his love of stand-up – his very own ‘eating a plane’ when it comes to a demanding venture, undertaken for its own ridiculous reward.

Personable and with a good sense of comic timing and everyday absurdity, Muller covers more ground than this in the well put-together hour. He recalls an hilariously humiliating Zoom gig, disses anyone who says their mum is their best friend, and shares amusing stories of weddings gone horrendously wrong. Some of this feels like familiar territory, but Muller can craft a decent gag and is charming, easy-going company, marking him out as a comic on the rise.
 

Review date: 18 Apr 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival