Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Back after a five-year hiatus, Steen Raskopolous has not greatly changed his tried-and-true format of mixing audience participation with character-led sketch comedy.

Although it is, perhaps, a little more dramatic in its scope than previously, with a sweeping crime epic at its heart in which two detectives – one of them who was moments earlier happily sitting in the front row of a comedy show – investigate a kidnapping.

The pace is sluggish as if Raskopolous has taken influences from binge-watching ponderous multi-part Netflix serials over lockdown. A brooding soundtrack further heightens the sense of drama. It makes for a richer theatrical experience – as does the cunning plotting to bring several foreshadowed ideas together in a rewarding finale – but at the considerable expense of the laugh rate.

Scenes from the main narrative are interspersed with shorter, sillier skits, such as the songwriter trying to lay down lyrics while being attacked by magpies or an energetic game of Simon Says with a couple of audience players. Generally, the contributors he seeks are not embarrassed, though there is one notable scene designed to revel in the temporary discomfort of the detective he picked.

Raskopolous is a talented actor, and has the room transfixed with his mimes and his character work, much more detailed than you have reason to expect from a sketch show, as we meet mob bosses and desperate hostage-takers. But it often seems he’s more keen to showcase those abilities than display a hunger for the laugh.

The structure is impressive. Raskopolous starts out by establishing in our minds the positive idea of what we would do for a stranger and the rewarding feeling it gives us. Convenient, that, since he’s soon calling on a handful of audience members to help him, a stranger, out with the show.

That idea re-emerges at the end with added impetus and calling back on much of which we have just seen. When everything wraps up, the effect is undeniably funny and very satisfying (though not, perhaps, for the poor punter whose clothing accidentally got ripped in the name of art tonight). But it’s a relatively slow journey to get there.

• Steen Raskopoulos: Friendly Stranger is on at ACMI at 7.30pm (6.30pm Sundays, no show Mondays) until April 23.

Review date: 13 Apr 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival