Image via stephenkamos.com
Stephen K Amos has an unfair advantage as a comedian. His expressive face and dramatic, elastic eyebrows create their own comedic effect before he’s even said a word. Debonair in his 3-piece suit, his presence alone in the room is funny, which allows this veteran of the festival scene to get away with this risky format of a show. It’s his secondary act at MICF alongside his stand-up show, Laughter Master, and it acts oddly as a promotion and sampler for a selection of Amos’s friends and fellow comedians who also have shows at MICF. Called Talk Show, it does what it says on the tin.
After a warm-up session from physical comedy duo The Kagools, Amos begins with a brief, hilarious getting-to-know-you piece in which he dances skilfully across topics from technology to health in middle age, to the strangeness of Australian culture and its racist food.
After a gentle bit of audience pestering, Amos introduces the first of his guests, Scottish comedian Daniel Sloss. Amos lounges on a couch, swooning and the brief chat that highlights both comedians’ charm, the only frustration that their warm banter just whets your appetite for much more from both men.
Amos’s second guest, Carey Marx delivers a short routine of charming, oddball material that at one point inexplicably features a carrot he keeps in his pocket. He’s a slow burn performer, his humour emerging so nonchalantly it feels as though he’s been lurking behind you.
Amos’s third guest is Ivan Aristeguieta from Adelaide via Venezuela, and again the topic of Australia’s strangeness rears its head. It would be starting to get tired by now, if not for the fact that his fish out of water experiences have their own quirky charm and uniqueness.
The Stephenson Experience, an Australian twin comedy duo, whose own show is called Twinfinity, are the final guests. Their act is tight, musical and high energy, and hinges on an over dramatized twin tension as an effective tool.
The chats Amos has with each guest are light, funny and charming, and Amos chucks a few ridiculous funnies at us in between each act. It’s clear the stage is his happy place and it’s enjoyable to watch.
The Talk Show format on the one hand introduces you to a bunch of great comedians, and on the other hand leaves you frustrated that you only experienced a taster. Stephen K Amos is charm personified and the chats are light and amiable. Talk. Show is the pastry hors d’oeuvre to the steak meal of Stephen K Amos’s main course stand-up show.
3 stars out of 5
Stephen K Amos – Talk Show
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Melbourne Town Hall Supper Room
3 and 10 April 2016
