Review – Dave Campbell: Insanarchy
Self-deprecating humour is something that Australian audiences are very well versed in. It’s a tried and tested technique, one that a lot of comedians use. So to say that someone has succeeded in constructing a fresh variety of self-deprecating comedy is a big claim, but one I will stand by when describing the comedic virtues of Dave Campbell.
Just when you think you know where he’s taking you with his anecdotal humour, he pulls you in a completely different and entirely hilarious direction. Erratic and original comedy is the name of the game when Campbell saunters up to the tiny stage in his half-gothic, half-cowboy boots. The tight venue with its array of mismatched chairs and stools gives the whole thing a sort of homely feel, as if I were watching a family member perform a one-man show at Christmas. But the close surroundings actually worked in Campbell’s favour, as his stories and jokes are punctuated and magnified by his weirdly wonderful facial expressions. Whether this is a deliberate or inadvertent tactic on his behalf, I found that a lot of the time his bewildered expression made me giggle longer than the joke would otherwise have warranted.
Campbell’s material is every day issues and occurrences; things that would usually seem mundane. From the perspective of a self-proclaimed anxiety sufferer, however, they are heightened and exaggerated to the point of ridiculous. A lot of things scare Campbell, things that aren’t supposed to be scary, but he recounts his experiences in a captivatingly honest and very amusing way.
The brilliance of Dave Campbell is that he appears to care very deeply about the things going on in his life, while somehow adopting a very casual stance on them at the same time. He is animated and laid back all at once. He’s a bit of a contradiction and a bit of a riddle and a whole lot of funny.
