Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Taking to the stage in grubby track pants and ancient T-shirt, the gawky, geeky Dan Rath leans hard into his status as a weird and tense social pariah. He makes no obvious concession to softening the rough edges of his odd, outsider personality for public consumption and that just makes his act all the more appealing. But, of course, he HAS subtly adapted his persona – three years ago, his pitiful desperation was offputting, now he’s learned how to exploit it.

While many similarly awkward comics bask in introverted vibes, Rath takes a more dominant approach, assailing the audience with a barrage of thoughts, possibly paranoid, without considering whether anyone’s ready to hear them. But as they take the form of pithy, quirky one-liners, we definitely do. 

His gags come at an astonishing rate and are of striking originality, born of his distinctive outsiders’ viewpoint. There’s a lot to unpack as these inventive, often dark, punchlines merge with troubling glimpses into his neuroses, making laughs come hard and fast.

‘It’s time to restigmatise mental illness,’ he asserts, feeling that his turf is being invaded by those with relatively minor complaints compared to his deep-seated problems. ‘I’m not doing well folks, I’ll give you that.’ 

Rath’s worked in an office - for a grand total of four hours – and is drowning in debt, but barely seems to care now he’s passed through despondency and into nihilism. Although his personal troubles are a constant, he’ll also often fly off into absurd reasoning why the Taliban are better than the Mafia, or of how a fantasy dwarf must feel about his real-world cousins.

Given Rath’s apparently limited social skills, it’s a surprise that Cockroach Party contains a fair bit of audience chat. And it’s even more of a surprise that almost all of it lands, opening up new avenues of off-the-wall thoughts that pay off with a freshly-minted absurd punchline.

He’s one odd fish, but Rath has learned how to bottle his peculiarities into this hilariously maladjusted hour.

• Dan Rath: Cockroach Party is at the Victoria Hotel at 10.30pm on April 21, 22 and 23, and 9.30pm on the 24th.

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