Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Dressed in a suit that appears to be fashioned from the garish orange tablecloth of a tacky 1970s diner, Dani Cabs’s clown persona Poncho is a gleefully upbeat delight, beaming positivity as he bigs up the audience: ‘You’re bringing it!’

And unlike many performers using audience participation, he’s diligent about gaining consent, coming up with a safe word – ‘haberdashery’ tonight – to let anyone bail on his up-close-and-personal interactions. A little less sensitive is the exaggerated comedy Latino accent his salacious alter-ego adopts – although Poncho is so generous and cheerful a creation, it would be churlish to object.

The clown describes himself as ‘foxy moron’, and shimmies around the stage with camp enthusiasm, dancing to a beat in his head as he performs his merrily stupid skits and dropping awkward malapropisms.

But for all the appeal of the character, the content is unambitiously one-note. Almost everything is sexual, and usually involves fruit, from overzealously devouring an orange to fellating a banana for several minutes, all while maintaining uncomfortable eye contact with the crowd.

Constant repetition, with only minor variations on the theme, means the joke wears very thin – although tonight’s audience, packed with a suspiciously good handful of fellow performers, received it very enthusiastically.

A human piñata sketch offers welcome respite, a silly, playful and childlike release of energy.  There's also a story highlighting toxic masculinity that varies the pace.

But then we’re soon back to the sexual act-outs. Enough already. 

Haberdashery!

Review date: 16 Apr 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival