Last year we saw Andrew Silverwood practically naked, climbing under the audience’s chairs and talking about his ‘First 10 Sexual Failures and other stories’, which caused one reviewer to label him as a ‘self absorbed twat’. Rather than letting this get him down though, he decided to name his entire next show after this review, and hence an hour of hilarious stand-up was created.
His vertically-challenged, pink-haired assistant Jamie Mykaela opened the show with five minutes of adorable singing and ukulele playing. Adorable, that is, until the lover she’s singing about scorns her for another and she manically descends into screeching on top of an audience member about how fine she is (we’ve all been there).
As Andrew tells us the unfortunate tales of his life, we can’t help but notice half of them took place in Adelaide (we are honoured to be from such a quirky city). Two of our favourites were the time a man with a live chicken in his bicycle basket gate-crashed his show down in Rundle Mall, and the time when he attempted to sleep with a woman, only to have her dog-wielding, knife-bearing ex-girlfriend crash the party.
It’s hard to determine whether Andrew purposely puts himself into ridiculous situations in hopes they will create stories to put towards a new show, but if this is true we’re glad he’s willing to sacrifice himself in the name of our laughter. His quick-wit, dripping sarcasm and self-deprecating jokes make for a solid hour of laughter. While his comedy might be on point though, we might suggest that he does not pursue a career as a rapper, as his closing song ‘Sex Face’ most definitely had us laughing at him, not necessarily with him.
As for the offensive side of his humour, well, we hate to say that some of the offensive material was in fact our favourite parts of the show. As a comedian, there’s a fine line that can be crossed in the world of touchy subjects, but Andrew manages to successfully balance right on the edge of the line that separates humorous from horrendous.
We rate: ★★★★ 4/5 stars
Image: Fringe World