British comic Paul Foot returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for the third consecutive year with a new show that takes an even deeper plunge into the absurd, delivering riveting tales about a cheddar collection and the best way to grow cucumbers.
Food-related anecdotes aside, Foot’s oddball humour incorporates nonsensical one-liners and bizarre scenarios. Forget conventional gags about telemarketers or public transport, Foot’s distinct brand of comedy consists of things that are not supposed to make sense. Throughout the night, the crowd often bursts into howling laughter before turning to their partner to ask, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Foot never refers to the titular Kenny Larch throughout the show; instead he muses about the problems faced by a novice angel in heaven and cleaning mishaps at Madame Tussauds Chamber of Horrors. Of the latter, he cheekily quips, ‘you couldn’t make this stuff up!’
Wearing a bright silver jacket and a floral tie, Foot flails about onstage when delivering his routine. As he jerks his skinny frame, his mullet bobs along, and he repeatedly uses the word ‘meanwhile’ to immediately launch into a completely unrelated segment. The idiosyncratic comedian is fully consumed in his own weird, imaginary world, becoming infuriated over wacky hypothetical situations and sometimes turning his mock rage on random members of the audience; fortunately, they play along.
The biggest laughs of the night came from Foot’s own appropriate anagrams for airlines, but the show ends with a disappointing finale in which he delivers insults to audience members that ‘don’t make sense’. In between jibes about Velcro and babies, a few hesitant chortles are heard from the audience, as though the appeal of Foot’s gibberish was beginning to wane.
Foot is a true original, and the occasional rare glimpse into his self-aware approach to comedy, such as a wry reference to keeping his routines topical by mentioning a train to Geelong (‘People tell me my comedy is too alternative, but I know how to keep it regional’) makes his ludicrous comedy all the more weirdly endearing.
Kenny Larch is Dead is a ridiculously entertaining show, and is definitely not to be missed.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Paul Foot – Kenny Larch is Dead
The Hi-Fi Bar, Melbourne
28 March – 21 April
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
www.comedyfestival.com.au
27 March – 21 April
