Photo credit: James Penlidis
It’s difficult to say whether Kate Dehnert is an optimist or not based on Shabamalam. Though the picture she paints of the future is one that sees humans reduced to museum exhibits and active members of a community of fools, she explores the world she creates with an inexhaustible exuberance. If she is a pessimist then at least she can see the funny side. Then again, a quick look at the news from our friends in the USA or even at home makes you wonder if she perhaps is being to kind. Whether it’s a glass half full or half empty kind of story will be in the eye of the beholder but not a point labouring, because despite the energy put into it, Shabamalam is a bit hit and miss.
Dehnert is an outstanding performer who inhabits her on-stage persona with an almost method level of commitment. She opens with a manic, cleverly crafted take on the stereotypical opening of comedians from way back that she twists into something a little darker and more interesting. Straight away, it’s clear she doesn’t take herself too seriously, which is a welcome relief from many of her contemporaries who try to peddle insight as comedy rather than the other way around. She still manages to remind us in her own way that we may be taking our world on a somewhat undesirable ​journey but she does from a completely wacky point of view.
Her imaginative and unbounded narrative was the undoubted high point of her show. It sees her lording over a world of worms, dabbling in the mired consequences of time travel and dealing with the day to day issues of an alien world, all in the pursuit of perhaps saving this one.
Despite her imagination and energy the show was more chuckles than laughs. Dehnert’s hyper-energetic stage presence and wild imagination, while entertaining in themselves, ended up overpowering all other aspects of the show. That energy also created a pace which did the timing of her delivery no favours.
Dehnert has her fans. She’s won some serious accolades and media praise but based on this show, her particualr style of comedy is not going to be for everyone. The audience seemed to reflect this with some getting right into it, while others just smiled and went along without being drawn in. One thing that can be said for Shabamalam: it’s one of the aptly titled shows of this year’s festival.
3 out of 5 stars
Kate Dehnert – Shabamalam​
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
ACMI, Melbourne
24 March – 17 April
