Review – Sam Simmons: Death of a Sails-Man
“It’s gonna be weird,” warned a moustachioed man in a rashie and double fanny packs. “Who here saw my last show?” A smattering of people in the line raised their hands. “Way weirder.” And he’d know, after all, since it was Sam Simmons prepping the crowd – a crowd that perhaps still didn’t quite know what they’d got themselves into. It was, as he said, joyously unabashed in its weirdness.
Of course, if someone queuing for Simmons’ show had managed to entirely miss his Triple J roots, strange Comedy Channel interstitials, short-lived ABC show Problems or even appearance on Conan last year, then good riddance if they didn’t enjoy it. Death of a Sails-Man follows sensibly in the chronology of Simmons’s material, and could possibly be argued to be a relatively safe show for the comic, though admittedly the word has little meaning given the context.
After all, this is still a narrative show intricately choreographed against a backing track, with Simmons at times playing both roles of an internal dialogue against his own pre-recorded voice. There’s a backdrop of cardboard cut-outs, crude language, a few prop food items and gloriously sincere songs. The music interludes, many of which are original creations, have the batty weirdness of a Tripod song and the same catchiness. I would pay good money for a copy of “Space Nana”.
Simmons commented a few times that it was a tough night for him, as the audience was clearly not enjoying itself. I’d like to believe it was all part of the act, as there was certainly no shortage of laughs heard. Perhaps the downside of a pre-recorded act is that you don’t have the breathing room to pause. You can’t riff on a joke until it lands, or even pause long enough after a big song to let the audience naturally applaud. The train just keeps chugging along, and you can’t miss it. The same is true of the show, but don’t say you weren’t warned. It’s pretty weird.
